Baby James saying ‘Villar!’ brightens the NP bet's day

BANGUI, Ilocos Norte—News about the dip in his survey ratings might have seemed like ominous clouds to Nacionalista Party standard bearer Senator Manuel Villar Jr. But on Tuesday, he saw something that brightened his day: a video showing Baby James chanting, “Villar! Villar!" Baby James, son of television host Kris Aquino and basketball cager James Yap, is the nephew of Villar’s fiercest rival for the presidency, Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III. A news video uploaded on popular videosharing website Youtube showed, at first, Kris carrying her two-year old son onstage before a crowd during the campaign rally of LP in Bacolod weeks ago. Then, as Kris allowed Baby James to hold a microphone and urged him to say something to the crowd, the child let out with “Villar!". Kris immediately turned his back from the crowd and whispered to Baby James, “No." When told of this, Villar said he was happy and honored that even the nephew of his rival knows him. "Ako ay natutuwa at isang malaking karangalan sa akin dahil alam mo ang mga bata, pinakahonest (I'm gladdened, and it's a great honor for me, because you know, kids are the most honest)," the senator said in a press conference here. In a separate press statement, Villar said “we welcome all forms of support, even those that come in small packages." On another issue, the presidential candidate denied that he copied his recent campaign ads from an Argentinian politician. Villar said he was not “competing in an originality contest," but was focused only on his message. “The message is what’s important, and that’s what we made on our own." Villar's staff said it was the Manila office of TBWA, the advertisement company that conceptualized the infomercial for the Argentinian politician, that produced the senator's campaign ads.—Amita O. Legaspi/JV, GMANews.TV