Senate President Manuel Villar was charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman for the alleged failure of his family’s bank to pay a P1.5-billion loan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
In response, Villar’s office said a similar case had been dismissed “for lack of palpable merit” by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2006.
“Clearly, therefore, this case is a rehash, recycled strategy,” read the statement.
Villar’s lawyer Ma. Nalen Rosero-Galang said this was a case of double jeopardy.
Former Senate president Manuel Villar Jr. said yesterday that he is ready to face his colleagues anew to defend himself over the alleged double insertion of P200 million in the 2007 budget to fast-track the C5 Road Extension project.
“I have nothing to fear,” Villar told The STAR in a phone interview shortly after he arrived from provincial sorties in Baguio City where he was guest of honor in graduation rites at the Benguet State University.
He also watched the Canao Festival and visited a foundation in Baguio.
“I am ready. I’d answer (the allegations),” said Villar when asked about the plan of the Senate under the leadership of Juan Ponce Enrile to pursue the complaint filed with the ethics committee by Sen. Jamby Madrigal over the P200-million “double entry” in the 2007 budget.
The Senate elected on Monday Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile as the new Senate president in a bloodless coup against the leadership of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.
The vote was 14-0 with six abstentions. Enrile, who had been pictured as an administration ally, ascended to the top Senate post with the help of oppositionist Senators Panfilo Lacson, Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd, Loren Legarda and Jamby Madrigal.
Villar resigned before the voting took place.
For his business achievements, he was made cover story in the Far Eastern Economic Review. And his life story was also featured in Asiaweek, Forbes, AsiaMoney and Asian Business Review.
He garnered various awards such as the Ten Outstanding Young Men Award (1986) by the Philippine Jaycees, Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Management (1989), Most Outstanding CPA by the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (1990) and Most Outstanding UP Alumnus (1991).
Manuel “Manny” Bamba Villar, Jr. (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and politician. He is the President of the Nacionalista Party and a member of the Senate of the Philippines. Villar was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2000—in which capacity he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada—as well as President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. Read more
This refers to the news item titled, “Tillers file plunder raps vs Villars.” (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 9/29/08) The subhead stated “Couple: Charges a rehash of dismissed case.”
Allow us to clarify that the two claimants referred to in the article as a “farmers group,” namely, Gina Jarvana and Valentina Amador, are (and were) not farmers in the disputed farmlands. In fact, they belong to a group being used to stop the genuine farmers’ groups from filing a case against spouses Sen. Manuel Villar and Rep. Cynthia Villar in connection with the farmlands in question.
If Senate President Manny Villar is so sure about the legality, morality and beneficiality of the second P200 million allocated for the C-5 road extension project, then he should waste no time in seeking its immediate release. Then, let his critics try to stop the faster completion of the project through the courts. This issue of double entry and conflict of interest is certain to hound him until 2010 unless he acts decisively by asking the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release the second P200 million for the project.
SP Villar has already been cleared of the “double entry” issue by the Senate Committee on Finance headed by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile. JPE, whom I consider the busiest senator in both committee and plenary works, said the addition of P200 million to the initial P200 million proposed by Malacañang for the C-5 road extension project, was done without any intent to profit financially from the double entry.
When Rep. Joker Ar-royo of the first con-gressional district of Makati was robbed of the speakership in June 1998, he asked some investigative journalist to dig deeper into information he received about an alleged land-grabbing incident in the hilly town of Norzagaray in Bulacan, right beside the foothills of the Sierra Madre. He had information that behind the supposed land-grabbing was the Villar couple, Manuel, soon to be proclaimed Speaker of the House by the grace of the newly-elected president of the land, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, and his wife Cynthia.
On August 17, 1998 Joker Arroyo spoke before his peers and charged the new Speaker with violations of the Constitution and the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, or R.A. 3019, in all of ten specific instances. The fourth charge of corruption stated by Arroyo was about the Capitol Bank’s receipt of financial accommodations from the Bangko Sentral between 1992 and 1998, when Mrs. Cynthia Villar was its CEO, and her husband Manuel was a congressman from Las Piñas, and now, Speaker of the House.
Senator Maria Ana Consuelo “Jamby” Madrigal-Valade on Friday remained adamant on her allegations that Senate President Manuel “Manny” Villar benefitted from the double appropriation of the C5 road extension project.
In an interview at ABS-CBN News Channel’s News at 8 Friday, Madrigal alleged that Villar wanted the C5 extension to cut through his property so he could sell the property at a higher price. Read more
MANILA, Philippines—A farmer’s group has filed a plunder suit before the Ombudsman against Senate President Manuel Villar and his wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, for their alleged failure to repay a P1.5 billion loan with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) which led to the loss of their farmlands in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
The farmers claimed the transfer of the farm lands from Capitol Development Bank, formerly owned by the Villars, to the BSP was illegal. The contested Norzagaray property also includes a controversial sanitary landfill project that had been put on hold.
Villar’s camp was quick to refute the charge as a rehash of a similar case filed by another group of farmers on the same property which was dismissed by the Ombudsman for “lack of merit” two years ago.
