📷Manny Villar | FB
Manny Villar is not noted for being honest about his wealth and he is, like Bong Go, enormously proud about his achievements, never mind if his acquisitions almost end up as “joint ventures,” with landowners becoming part-owners, meaning they do not get paid upfront and must help sell condos before they secure their money.
This is the reason why some churches approached by Manny Villar refused to part with their properties and argued that, apart from such “sale” ending up as “joint ventures,” selling properties of their congregations leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Give to God what is God’s and to Manny Caesar what is Manny Caesar’s. Indeed, as some residents of a Villar project in Rizal said, “Why be generous to a company that refuses to donate a small lot for the community’s chapel?” The residents took the refusal seriously. Manny Villar got a big fat egg there when he ran for President. A stinging ZERO.
For Manny Villar now to claim P999.72-billion earnings for his Golden MV Holdings is consistent with his obsession to grab more wealth, first by inflating the value of his assets, either by making highways and expressways pass through them or persuading government to implement infrastructure projects contiguous to his properties. When he was pressed for cash to proceed with his stalled projects, like the one in Mandaluyong City, Villar resorted to pressuring state banks to lend him cash, and the story about the P500-million loan that a bank denied him led to the downfall of a popular political figure.
Analyzing the claim that Golden MV Holdings amassed P999.7-billion in earnings, this is a strange outcome for a company that saw its revenue from actual sales of residential properties sink by 26% to P3.31 billion. The holding firm must be gloating over the revaluation of his properties, not the earnings from completed sales. It is standard operating procedure for compradors to tack on total value of their properties to their annual reports even as down payments comprise bulk of earnings from their sales of condos or residences. “Nagbibilang na ng manok kahit hindi pa napipisa ang itlog,”goes the saying. They simply overstated the real estate values, not basing them on BIR zonal values. By privatizing the determination of zonal values, Manny Villar and his executives can simply raise values, even if the market has been retreating, with the condo sellers facing a glut which compelled them to to cut prices by 25%.
Villar’s propaganda arm tells us that the value of their company’s assets ballooned to P1.37-trillion due to a P1.33-trillion gain in the fair market value (FMV) of its real estate holdings. In effect, Villar is telling us that his idle lands suddenly soared in value. What caused the leap in value? Surely, not the discovery of rare earth metals in Villar City or the finding that there is uranium in the former salt beds of Las Pinas, or that gold nuggets suddenly materialized in his properties, where he probably keeps some dairy cows. By announcing to the entire world that his property values are soaring while the Consunjis are finding it hard to sell their units after the POGO debacle, Villar may be attempting to sell the hide on a unkilled bear, as Russians describe it.
Villar’s company’s massive income is largely artificial and driven by speculative revaluation rather than real economic contributions, Makabayan senatorial candidate and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) national chairperson Danilo Ramos was astonished to hear the Villar claim. Golden MV develops Golden Haven memorial parks and other properties, including the many irrigated lands in Iloilo that were suddenly converted for commercial purposes and areas that property owners lost. If the Villar-backed proposed national land use plan is railroaded in the Senate and becomes law, KMP speculated that the already controversial CARP would end up as a confirmed phantom program. “This so-called profit surge is nothing but a reflection of how billionaires like the Villars manipulate land ownership for personal gain while millions of Filipinos remain landless and struggling,” Ramos explained. “Ito ay malinaw na bunga ng malawakang land-grabbing, land banking, at kawalan ng tunay na reporma sa lupa sa bansa.”
“Ang kita ng Golden MV ay hindi nagmumula sa aktwal na produktibong ekonomiya kundi sa pagmamanipula ng halaga ng lupa. Ang ganitong sistema ay lalong nagpapahirap sa maralitang Pilipino, lalo na ang magsasaka at manggagawa,” Ramos declared. He warned that this purported Villar achievement could be used to promote the flagging campaign of Villar heiress Rep. Camille Villar Genuino, who is running for a Senate seat to replace her mother Sen. Cynthia Villar and provide company to her brother Sen. Mark Villar. Camille became notorious at the House of Representatives for voting to scrap the ABS-CBN legislative franchise, with the Villar inheriting the broadcast frequencies of the Lopez-owned ABS-CBN. Camille is not known as an industrious lawmaker. She has not crafted any law that improved the economy, made the government efficient and stopped landgrabbing.
“The Villars are not just hoarding land, they are hoarding political power,” Ramos stated. “Hindi lang sila panginoong maylupa, kundi gustong panghawakan ang gobyerno para lalong maprotektahan ang kanilang mga negosyo. Hindi ito ang uri ng pamamahala na kailangan ng bansa.” Villar’s business interests include Vista Land and Lifescapes, Inc., one of the largest real estate developers in the Philippines; AllHome, a nationwide home improvement retail chain; and AllDay Supermarket, a rapidly expanding grocery chain. The group also controls Golden Haven, a network of high-end memorial parks, and Vistamalls, which operates a chain of shopping centers across the country. (DIEGO MORRA)
