Candidates in the May 10 elections are discouraged from campaigning in schools, but presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Villar Jr. on Wednesday took the opportunity to lash back at his critics during a graduation ceremony at a college in Manila. Speaking before graduates of the Perpetual Help College of Manila, Villar, who is wooing voters through his rags-to-riches life story, said most of his critics came from prominent political families. “Tingnan niyo mga pamilya pumipigil sa akin. Madrigal, Roxas, Cojuangco, Aquino. Hindi ba sila ang mga pamilyang nagpapatakbo ng ating bansa nitong nakaraang 50 years? And where are we now?" he said in his speech. (Look at the families who are trying to stop me. Madrigal, Roxas, Cojuangco, Aquino. They are the ones who have been running this country for the past 50 years, and yet where are we now?) He was referring to Sen. Jamby Madrigal, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III, Sen. Manuel Roxas II, and Gilberto Teodoro Jr., nephew of business tycoon Danding Cojuangco. Madrigal, Aquino and Teodoro are Villar’s rivals to the presidency, while Roxas is Aquino’s running mate. Villar’s critics have accused him of faking his life story to make it appear that he came from a dirt-poor family. In his speech, the Nacionalista Party standard bearer narrated his life as a poor boy growing up in the streets of Tondo to become one of the country’s most successful businessmen.
Mixed reactions Graduates, however, had mixed reactions regarding Villar’s speech during the event. “Hindi siya appropriate para sa occasion. Maganda kung iiwasan yung mga ganung issue, parang nakakadismaya (His speech was not appropriate for the occasion. He should’ve avoided that issue. I was dismayed)," said Krizza Manuel, 19, a nursing graduate. Manuel’s classmate, Marc Kristoffer Lim, 21, meanwhile, saw inspiration in the senator’s speech. “Maganda rin syempre pinakita niya na kahit mahirap pwede rin maging presidente balang araw. OK lang na nangampanya siya," he said. (I was impressed. He showed that even if you came from a poor family, you can still be president in the future. I’ve no problem with him campaigning here.) Even Manuel admitted that she was impressed by the part of Villar’s speech about having one’s own business. Villar, a self-made billionaire, is the 9th richest Filipino in 2009, according to Forbes Magazine. In his speech, he encouraged the PCHM graduates to become entrepreneurs instead of being mere employees. But when he denied in his speech that he stole from the government, some of the audience showed their disapproval by clearing their throats and coughing loudly. This was followed by uncomfortable silence. Villar finished his speech with no other interruptions from the audience, who even laughed at his jokes. He left when the distribution of diplomas started.
Not pro-Villar Interviewed by GMANews.TV, Dr. Ramon Cercado, Chancellor of the University of Perpetual Help System (UPHS), allayed suspicions that they are pro-Villar, saying other presidential candidates were invited as guest speakers in their other campuses. “We have eight campuses all over Luzon so we invited all the presidentiables to be our guest speaker in one of the campuses that we have," he said. He said Aquino of the Liberal Party was the invited guest speaker during the commencement exercise of their campus in Biñan, Laguna, last Tuesday. LP senatorial candidate, Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, represented Aquino as he was in a sortie in Cebu. Cercado also said Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet Gilberto Teodoro Jr. would also be their guest speaker but he was not sure on what campus it would be. He said they have graduation ceremonies on April 22 and 24. “I think it would be nice for the students to hear what they [presidential candidates] would present to us after all the greater majority of the voters nowadays are of their age," he said.
Orange Cercado clarified that their guest speaker Wednesday does not reflect the political inclination of the university. The Tamayos, owners of UPHS, came from Las Piñas City, Villar’s home base. Villar’s wife, Cynthia, currently represents the city at the House of Representatives. Cercado added that the color of his toga, orange, does not mean he is for Villar, who is using orange as his official campaign color. “This is the color of the Graduate School of Education of the UST (University of Santo Tomas). It so happened that it’s orange," he said. Cercado also said he saw nothing wrong with the distribution of Villar campaign paraphernalia – balers, fans, pocket calendars – to the graduates and their families.
- KBK, GMANews.TV