Villar should not be President — de los Reyes

(Updated 6:51 pm) Ang Kapatiran standard bearer JC de los Reyes on Wednesday said that among his nine rivals, it is Senator Manuel Villar Jr. who should not win the presidency. De los Reyes, the youngest presidential aspirant, claimed that the Nacionalista party candidate had been "trying to buy [off] the electorate" by spending billions for his campaign. "I'm scared [for the people] because how much is he spending, P10 billion?" he said. He added that Villar had been giving the public a "wrong impression" by projecting that he cares for the poor since he comes from a poor family. "It’s pure propaganda. He’s giving the wrong impression to the people. It does not follow. It’s not logical that he loves them because he allegedly came from [their ranks]," he said. De los Reyes spoke to GMANews.TV after his interview with broadcast journalist Mike Enriquez on the radio program "Ikaw Na Ba? The Presidential Interviews" aired over dzBB radio on Wednesday morning. During the interview, De los Reyes noted that he would not splurge on information commercials (infomercials) even if his party had that much money. "I will not do that because I believe in the dignity of my campaign," he said in Filipino.

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Want to get a copy of the interview? Right click to download the podcast (55Mb) "If public service or love for your fellowmen is your goal, how many houses could have been built or how many children could have been fed by those billions?" he added. NP spokesperson and senatorial candidate Gilbert Remulla said de los Reyes should get to know Villar “for him to make sound judgment." “We hope that the good councilor has just not been swayed by all the black propaganda and the desperate hate campaign [against Villar]," Remulla said. In his campaign slogans, Villar, one of the country's richest, claims to be the tunay na mahirap (real poor) and that he knows their plight because he has experienced poverty. A recent trust rating survey by Pulse Asia showed that he is the most trusted among presidential aspirants, with 70 percent of 1,800 respondents choosing him over his rivals. (See: Villar is most trusted bet in May 10 polls — Pulse Asia) Villar and main rival Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III of the Liberal party have also been statistically tied in preference surveys for the May 10 elections. De los Reyes is one of the less popular candidates. Meanwhile, de los Reyes faulted the Nacionalista Party and other political parties, including the Liberal Party and Lakas-Kampi-CMD, for the country's age-old problem with corruption. "The country is corrupt because its political parties are corrupt," he said, citing turncoatism and "big money politics" as predominant practices among local politicians. Ang Kapatiran members Martin Bautista and Alex Lacson have since defected to the Liberal Party, where they are now part of its senatorial ticket. — NPA, GMANews.TV