by Diego Morra
On Dec. 30, 2025, Hien Nguyen reported for the Vietnamese newspaper VN Express that Manny Villar, reputed to be the Philippines’ wealthiest man but pretends to be a dairy farmer, lost $12.4 billion in net worth since March, dragging two other Filipino plutocrats to lose a combined $9.8-billion.
For its part, Forbes reported that, all told, Villar lost $16 billion of his wealth, all of it because of his fiddling with the value of his properties that caused his external auditors, Punongbayan & Araullo (P&A), to refuse to examine his books, citing egregious accounting practices and a mountain of corporate irregularities. In short, Villar and his cohorts have been engaged in creative accounting, inflating the value of his assets in much the same fashion that Donald Trump claims he determines the value of his assets despite grifting 3,500 suppliers and shafting his workers.
Apprised of the Villar hanky-panky, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) froze the trading of Villar shares at the bourse, ensuring that his stocks would be in the doldrums way past the New Year. Losing more than half the value of its shares is no guarantee of the financial solidity of Villar companies, which are owned 89% by the former Senate President and close friend to now detained ex-president Rodrigo Duterte. Borrowing P13.3-billion from Chinabank to finance his ambitious projects, Villar is sinking deeper into the quicksand. His surprising savior, Lucio Co, whose family established Asiatic Glassware in Rizal Ave. to sell Indonesian glasses, cups and plates before venturing into tax-free outlets in Subic and elsewhere, mysteriously “bought” Primewater after the Villar company was denounced by water consumers in scores of water districts for poor service, high tariffs and exploitative “joint ventures” with local water districts.
In Bacolod City, Dasmarinas City, San Jose del Monte City, Zambales and other towns controlled by Primewater, the water service deteriorated, no septage facilities were built, and possible contamination of supposed potable water were raised, particularly in San Jose del Monte, and an evaluation of the many patients who suffered from e. coli infection might show that the system that churned out dirty water is to blame. The Villars were also condemned for the economically devastating performance of the Siquijor Power, which saw its supply contract scrapped by the Department of Energy (DOE) as consumers demand that the Villars be charged criminally for prolonged power outages in the island province.
The virtual monopoly of PrimeWater over local water districts came when Mark Villar became DPWH secretary during the Duterte regime and, wonder of wonders, Duterte transferred the supervision on local water districts (LWDs) from the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to the DPWH. Sensible Filipinos were not born yesterday and they could not resist to howl when Mark argued he had nothing to do with the PrimeWater joint ventures with LWDs since he had delegated the duty to assess such ventures to his underlings. Talk of Pilate washing his hands on a basin of water to free himself for any guilt in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. This is the same Villar who boasted about the completion of more than 5,000 flood control projects under his watch.
What comes around goes around, Americans would say, and the biggest hit that scuppered Villar’s obsession with being the wealthiest creature this side of Earth was when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found out that Villar inflated the value of his assets, comprised mainly of raw lands in Southern Metro Manila and Cavite that his affiliates purchased. Villar stumped the property market when his weird computation pushed the value of his assets to 500% higher than the assets if the Ayala Group and 300% bigger than the value of the properties of the SM Group. Moreover, P&A dumped the audit of the Villar Group since its accountants cannot make heads or tails about the figures generated the conglomerate.
Worse, Villar’s holding company failed to produce an audited financial statement for 2024, indicating that some legerdemain attended the crafting of s standard submission as P&A refused to even touch Villar documents. This was a grievous error that led to the suspension of the trading of Villar shares that lasted for six months. The crux of the matter was the impossible valuation of Villar City, which the political dynasty claimed to be 2,500 hectares. Through a compliant appraiser, E-Value Phils., Inc., Villar’s assets were valued at P1.33 trillion, prompting SEC to investigate, leading to findings that there was no basis for the valuation and the firm, which has SEC accreditation, did not abide by international valuation standards. Forthwith, SEC fined it P1-million. In reaction, the company said it would shut down.
Manny Villar and his children were also slapped with P1-million for erroneous reporting that amounts to deceiving investors. As it is, Villar’s stock collapsed, sinking 30% on the first day of its return to the bourse and losing another 30% the following day. The Villars got a big black eye for their monkey business, with business leaders still scratching their heads over the stupid 25,000% increase in the valuation of their acquired properties to P1.33-trillion. Faced with ridicule and contempt, the Villars had to admit the mistake and “agree” to a 99% reduction of value to only P8.7-billion.
The Villars have made a career of window-dressing their assets, bloating their values and establishing Villar malls in irrigated lands to push the value of their properties and make use of riverine easements for roads traversing their subdivisions, not to help residents but to make their appraisers raise the value of their land sky-high. Now, the Villars are engaged in a PR campaign to deodorize their valuation scam, bombarding newspapers, TV and radio outlets with the dozens of awards for environmental advocacy, promoting the use of water hyacinth for dresses and a lot of other ventures, some of them possibly funded by research funds from the Department of Agriculture (DA.) In this country, awards are a dime a dozen, which is only good for the Villars when their feet are being put to the fire.
