Manny Villar, Mr. Sipag at Tyaga or C-5 & Taga?

There is no denying that Manny Villar was able to help quite a few distressed overseas Filipino workers and rightly so he deserves the credit. He has projected himself as an OFW savior and he has some tract record to prove it but there is one thing that caught my attention and hopefully this is not sanctioned by Mr. Villar or an SOP among his staff.

Dondon Lanuza an OFW has been languishing in Saudi prisons and condemned to death by beheading posted a very disturbing response he received from the staff of Manny Villar which I quote:

From: Manny Villar
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:14:46 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: OFW on Deathrow's Appeal for help
To: OFW on KSA's Deathrow

We already received your e-mail, you may call OWWA for the benefits you need the contact no. is (02) 833 6992 or 551 6641. We cannot help you.

Thank you,
SAGIP-OFW HELPLINE STAFF

This kind response is truly insensitive bordering on cruelty and tactless to say the least so I tried to get an explanation from Mr. Villar but did not get any. I asked Dondon Lanuza what he did to get this ridiculous response and below was his side of the incident:

Nag-email lang po ako sa kanya na paki follow-up po ang Case ko sa DFA at sa Embassy dito dahil 9 years and 2 months na po ako dito at medyo malapit na ipataw ang sintensyang Pugot Ulo. O kung may magagawa siya bilang Senador na bill para sa mga OFW na Deathrow. At the same time ay inilapit ko po ang sitwasyon ng 2 anak ko na nagugutom. At eto po ang sagot niya (I just emailed him to please follow-up on my case at the DFA and the embassy here because it has been 9 years and 2 months and they are about to carry the sentence of beheading. Or if he can introduce a bill as a senator for the sake of OFWs on death row. At the same time I appealed for the situation of my 2 kids suffering from hunger and this is how he responded.)

Of course Mr. OFW Savior can always weasel himself out of responsibility and point the blame as usual to his underlings, I just don’t know if he still has some credibility especially when he is not willing to clear the controversy surrounding the C-5 budget double insertion. Then we hear of Villar’s overcharging residents of subdivisions he owns that Manuel Buencamino calls Villar’s Waterworld citing Schumey at Philippine Experience post titled Villar's Golden Water, to quote:

Subdivisions in Las Piñas not owned by the Villars are celebrating. The reason, they are now freed from Villar's water company with the entry of Maynilad. Unfortunately for the people who live in Camella, they will have to continue paying for high water rates. Villar refused to allow Maynilad to service his subdivisions. Maynilad's rates are way below what Villar's water company charges its subscribers. He clearly does know how to put his interests above that of the public.

Let me show you how expensive water coming from Villar's company can be. Maynilad's basic charge is P106.77 while Manuela 4A-4H charges P 190.00. The difference doesn't end there. Maynilad's rates gradually increases and plateaus at P45.28 at 200/cum and over. Villar's is P47.50 for 51 cum and over. Spot the difference? The poor residents have no other alternative. If they want cheaper water, they should live elsewhere. "Iiyak talaga ang lahat kay Manny!"

Schumey further reports that it appears that one of the residential developments in Las Piñas of Manny Villar the Camella Homes are built without their own drainage system and it was the government that spent and built the sewers. This presidential wannabe wants us to believe that the nation needs a leader with a business sense he being a successful one, but it seems that the lines are too blurred when it comes to his business interest and public interest. Why did the government spend and built the sewers for a private development escapes me, have they not heard of conflict of interest or worse exerting influence so the government can finish the job for him gratis et amore?

At the height of Typhoon Ondoys fury Schumey shared the sad experience of the Elizabeth Seton School's PTA actively distributing relief goods to the flood victims of Las Piñas was told by the Barangay captain to leave the relief goods with them since they still have to repack the goodies in Villar’s bags. Brazen I should say and this probably explain why Dondon Lanuza was given such arrogant cruel response.

Shameless I should say but then again do they really have shame to begin with and this really shows how rotten to the core people in the government are all the way to the lowest barangay level. Schumey believes that the incident is not an isolated case and yes sadly he is right, validated by this dismaying experience of a caterer shared by Rosana Robles at Facebook, to quote:

While the private sector is so busy helping out, I heard a horror story of a caterer who repacked her food and gave it away for the people around her area who needed it, unfortunately this is what she said,

"nagkamali ako nung unang araw na namigay ako ng pagkain ,nadala ko sa municipio, hindi nakaabot sa mga taong nasalanta, sila-sila sa municipio ang kumain, kaya nung sumunod na araw dinerecho ko na sa tao " (I made a mistake on my first day when I donated food, I brought it to the municipal office, it did not reach the flood victims, the municipal workers ate it all, so the next day I brought it directly to the people.)

Can we please stop the corruption! It's everywhere iba-iba nga lang ang degree!

Mahiya naman sila!

Now that is really sad, if it’s not some brazen shameless running dogs of high officials blatantly and openly telling people they will repack goodies donated by others as if it was their master’s donation we have gluttons ravaging food intended for the hungry flood victims. But then again what do we expect when their role model proudly comes up with a slogan of “Sipag at Tyaga” that is sounding more like C-5 & Taga………

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