OPINION: CYNTHIA ON HUSBAND MANNY VILLAR
MANILA, NOVEMBER 19, 2009 (STAR) FROM THE STANDS By Domini M. Torrevillas - With the selection by Nacionalista Party president Manny Villar of Sen. Loren Legarda of the Nationalist People’s Coalition as his running mate in the 2010 elections, the speculative air has been stilled, of course only to heighten in the hectic days of the campaign period. While the two were celebrating Loren’s selection at a press conference at the social hall of the Villar-owned Laurel Mansion in Mandaluyong City the other day, an important figure in the life of Manny stayed out of sight, mingling with guests inside the dining area, not intruding into the victorious hour that was Loren’s. That is typical of Cynthia Aguilar Villar — not stealing the limelight, but staying in the sidelines, simple and quiet. But she is the strong pillar behind who might be the next president of the land — competent on her own as an entrepreneur, legislator, and empowering force for women and men with livelihood and environmental projects.The media generally has access to once-and-future kings and their spouses, but the general public has knowledge of them only through what the media tells it. Taking on the power of public informant, the famous hair specialist Ricky Reyes is sponsoring a series of dialogues between presidential candidates’ wives and the media. For starters, he got together broadcast and print media practitioners to “chat” with Cynthia. Ricky said his purpose is to let the public know the potential first ladies, and by their understanding of these ladies’ character and aspirations, they can choose their presidential candidates. For what the wives are, their husbands will be.
The catchy slogan of the Villar campaign is “Sa Sipag at Tyaga,” and indeed, through Manny’s industry and perseverance, said Cynthia at our lunch, he rose from poor boy from Moriones, Tondo, selling seafoods on winnowing baskets with his mother, to sand and gravel dealer, to the biggest housebuilder in Southeast Asia, his construction business having built 200,000 (to date) houses for low and middle-income families, to congressman representing Las Pinas for three terms, and senator.
Manny and Cynthia were classmates taking up business at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. Cynthia’s grandmother was a small-time businesswoman, selling ikmo (the green leaf chewed with betel nut), and her son (Cynthia’s father) became a doctor, then mayor of Las Pinas; her mother was a schoolteacher. Her parents had a modest income, and it was when Cynthia and Manny got married and went into the real estate business that the Villar fortune was made. “No, Manny did not marry me for the Aguilar money because there was little of it.” Manny was voted three times to Congress, and was elected by his peers as speaker, and in the Senate, as president. “It’s important that peers elect you to high positions,” said Cynthia, wearing bangs, little make-up and simple clothes.
Cynthia became a politician herself, and she is currently finishing her third term as congresswoman. She’s proud about having helped the Las Pinas women folk earn money from livelihood projects such as weaving table linen, placemats, clothes hampers, and vases. Las Piñas’ environmental projects she initiated include the production of coir from coconut husks which is used as a buffer to keep hillsides from getting eroded, and making water lilies that clog the river into handicraft items.
The senator has been accused of making double insertions in the congressional budget for the C-5 highways in order to benefit his real estate holdings in the area. The Villars have strongly denied this charge, saying that everything is clean and justified, in fact, Manny’s co-senators have dismissed the charge. One thing about the Villar campaign, said Cynthia, is that there is no knocking down of opponents.
Did she agree when it was clear Manny wanted to run for the presidency? Said Cynthia:”I wanted him to do it. I believe when there’s an opportunity offered, you take it, so that when you grow old, you don’t have regrets, you don’t say, ‘What if?’”
“I’m not a weak person, but Manny is a bigger person than me. He is quick to swallow his pride, and that’s good. His biggest trial was when there was this financial crisis, and we saw that all that we had worked for might all go down the drain. But he overcame all that, by ‘sipag and tyaga.’”
Manny, said Cynthia, is “a responsible person, a responsible husband. He will be a responsible president.”
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On another front, my position has always been that we should make different family planning methods accessible to enable women and their husbands to plan the size of their families. However, I appreciate the efforts being made by advocates of the natural family planning method, the intention of which is also to plan family size and promote quality life. The Commission on Population (POPCOM), long promoting the various methods of contraception, is now actively promoting a healthy, safe, and effective way of managing population through a Responsible Parenthood Movement Natural Family Planning Program.
One couple who is benefiting from the RPMNFPP is the Bendana couple of Tanay, Rizal. Arnel, 35, works as a “seasonal” signage maker, while his wife, Marife, 36, is a laundrywoman. Their combined monthly income is only P6,000. They decided to attend a seminar on RPM-NFP sponsored by local health workers in their area and mutually agreed to try the Cervical Mucus Method. This proved to be a safe and effective method of managing the size of their family. Five years after giving birth to their first child, they decided to have a second baby. Marife is now pregnant.
Arnel is convinced of the NFP’s safety and effectiveness so he himself is an active member of Tanay’s RPM movement. He devotes his free time spreading the message and convincing other couples to try NFP.
The Bendana couple is just one of the many beneficiaries of POPCOM’s RPM-NFP which is one of the components of President Arroyo’s Accelerated Hunger-Mitigation Program. To cater to more couples, POPCOM conducts RPM classes in the barangays. POPCOM also organized RMP federations at the provincial, municipal and barangay levels to disseminate information and act as advocates of the NFP method.
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Tomorrow, November 20, the Sr. Baptista Battig Music Foundation of St. Scholastica’s College, in cooperation with the St. Scholastica’s College Alumnae Foundation, Inc., will host the biggest gathering of alumnae and friends, an event dubbed as KulasaKaBa? One music. One voice. One hope, at the LePavillon. It’s a celebration of music from the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, all the way to the present featuring an all-kulasa ensemble — Imago and The Original Penthouse 7 gang among many others with the entertainingly witty Mitch Valdez as the host for the evening.
Proceeds of the event will go the Sr. Baptista Battig Music Foundation Scholarship Trust Fund and the St. Scholastica Research and Development Fund.
Open to all kulasas and friends, tickets are at P1,000, all inclusive. For more information, call Carina de la Cruz at 526-8080 or 986-4902, or cel 0928-5000549.
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“Beauty and The Bible,” a live musicale on the testimonies of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Esther, Abigail, Tamar and the Daughters of Job, will be presented at SM Megamall Cinema 7 on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. The stories are about the most beautiful women that ever lived. Childless, manipulative, jealous, faithful, submissive, abused and blessed — these are true accounts of ordinary women endowed with extraordinary beauty.
The musicale is written by Reev Robledo, and produced by Lightswitch Publishing and PAMBRidGe Events. Proceeds will be for the benefit of the Backstreet Kids Ministry.
Tickets are available at all Ticketnet Outlets at the SM Department Store Customer Service Area, and at the Araneta Coliseum ticket booths. For inquires, call 911555, or 0917-6293458 or 0928-5247136, or email pambridge.events@gmail.com. Or log on at www.beautyandthebible.com.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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