Only An "Electronic Garci" Will Stop Him Now

With less than two weeks before elections, Noynoy Aquino has kept his lead over all the other presidential candidates in practically all kinds of poll surveys conducted all over the country! The outpouring of overwhelming support from all sectors of the Philippine society is reminiscent of the EDSA 1 revolt against the Marcos Dictatorship.

After nine years of continuing political and moral decadence under Arroyo, the nation now look up to Noynoy for that much awaited new hope! Now, only a COMELEC instigated electronic 'dagdag-bawas' can stop him now!

The Rape And Destruction Of A Rice Granary

The following note and accompanying video was posted by one Noel Esquela on Facebook! I am re-posting this here for everyone to read and watch how Villar employed dubious schemes to acquire land covered by Land Reform to transform them into one of his housing projects!




VILLAR: THE REAL STORY OF SAVANNAH SUBDIVISION
Savannah Subdivision is Villar’s flagship in Pavia and Oton, Iloilo. This is the stage where the story unfolds, and provides damning evidence against Villar as a shrewd businessman who employs devious and illegal methods to accomplish his objectives, a politician who doesn’t hesitate to use his clout to compel government regulators to close their eyes and allow him to willfully violate the law.

It began in 1994 when Villar started scouting for an area where to put up the project. Villar saw the lands in Barangays Jibao-an in Pavia, Abilay Norte and Pulo Maestra Vita in Oton, as an ideal location. The wide land area sat close to the national highway leading to Iloilo City. The cost of the lands was dirt-cheap compared to potential locations within the city. From the real estate developers’ point of view, it was the dream place for a housing development.

There was just one catch: the lands were covered by agrarian reform, and these were classified as first-class irrigated rice lands. This fact alone will trigger alarm bells in the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), which has the mandate to regulate the conversion of agricultural lands to other purposes. As then DAR regional director Elmo Banares said, such lands are categorized as “non-negotiable”. These lands are ineligible for conversion.

An Open Letter to COMELEC

Restore Faith in the Electoral Process: An Open Letter to COMELEC

 Today at 5:32am

Can the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) ensure that the coming elections will be credible and truthful? We hope so. As educators and Filipino citizens, however, we wish to make public our grave concerns regarding COMELEC’s less-than-sterling performance, thus far, in the preparations leading to the May 2010 elections. As Christian educators and Filipino citizens, we the De La Salle Brothers of the Philippines regard the promotion of truth, justice and the common good as integral to our educational ministry in the country. If we choose to speak at this time, it is because we see the common good threatened by COMELEC’s seeming ineptitude.

Over the past year, despite concerns, fears, and legitimate criticisms raised by the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee (JCOC), the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), the University of the Philippines’ National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), the Automated Election System Watch 2010 (AES Watch), the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), the Washington-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and other credible bodies, the COMELEC has failed to put in place
the needed safeguards to ensure the credibility of the upcoming political exercise. This is why, impelled by our individual and collective consciences, we have deemed it urgent to call attention to the negligence, unintended or otherwise, that puts this most basic and sacred of political rights—the right to suffrage—in grave danger.

An Open Letter To Manny Villar From Bill Esposo

Apart from Winnie Monsod, another respectable writer/columnist who exposed the truth behind Manny Villar's absurd claim of being dirt poor is William "Bill" Esposo who writes for the Philippine Star and the blogger behind "As U Wreck This Chair". I am re-posting the letter here for everyone to read!


AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR By William M. Esposo (The Philippine Star) Updated April 04, 2010 12:00 AM

My dear Kumpareng Manny:

Villar Copies Award Winning Campaign Ad of Argentina's Presidential Candidate

Running out of ideas!

Manny Villar's latest scrolling political ad being shown in all television stations is an excellent piece of advertising work...so I thought until I read "Argentina, The Philippines and The Manny Villar Connection" at Barrio Siete.

It turned out it was merely copied from an award winning political advertisement of Argentina's Presidential Candidate Lopez Murphy! Here's the original ad that was copied by Villar -

Murphy’s law and Manny Villar

I am re-posting this article by Mr. Greg Macabenta, even without his prior permission as the article gives a candid and truthful view of  Manny Villar's campaign strategy which I feel everyone must  ponder!


Posted on 08:31 PM, March 30, 2010 On Business World
Ad Lib -- Greg B. Macabenta

There’s an axiom in advertising that says, a great campaign can expose a bad product faster -- because it persuades people to try the product sooner and to find out how bad it is. It looks like this axiom is being proven true in the case of would-be-president-of-the-poor Manny Villar.
One of my closest friends in advertising created Villar’s OFW commercials when he was just beginning to water the seeds of his presidential campaign. Apparently, the creative strategy worked, because Villar began to close the gap with VP Noli de Castro who, at the time, appeared to be formidable as a "presidentiable" in all the public opinion surveys.

But on one of my visits to Manila, I learned that my pal had quit on Villar. Apparently, he didn’t appreciate the way Villar had hired a host of creative consultants and political advisers, armed with a variety of bright ideas that violated the cardinal rule for an effective campaign, namely, single-mindedness.

At any rate, Villar apparently listened to his new creative brain trust and, together, they came up with some very impressive commercials, based on some very bold claims, expressed in very memorable language.

To solidify Villar’s positioning as the "champion of the poor," they concocted the line, "Nanggaling sa hirap. Tumutulong sa mahihirap." (From the poor. Helping the poor.)

To portray him as the role model for the upward-striving masses, they attributed his rise "from poor boy to billionaire" to "Sipag at Tiyaga." Industriousness and diligence. Yes, indeed, what better formula for success?

And to really, truly, effectively, dramatically, and memorably drive home the point, they created the gems:

"Nakaligo ka na ba sa dagat ng basura?" (Have you ever bathed in a sea of garbage?) and "Nakaranas na ba kayong...mamatayan ng kapatid dahil wala kang perang pampagamot, wala ka namang magawa?" (Have you experienced the death of a sibling because you had no money for medicine and you could do nothing about it?"

No soap opera writer could have spun greater tearjerkers.

And that was not all. Armed with such fantastic creatives, Villar decided to make sure that every man, woman, and child in every corner of the archipelago would have an opportunity to see these products of communications and creative brilliance.

"Pour it on," Villar must have ordered his media buyers. "Saturate Wowwowwee. Tell Revillame to raffle off houses and bundles of cash. Shoot a Dolphy testimonial. Ask Pacquiao to sing a jingle."

And Villar must have added: "And do a pool of commercials starring me -- the poor boy who made good -- surrounded by the people I love. The POOR!!!"

Strangely, the one campaign theme that Villar’s creative and political consultants did not touch was the most obvious, for someone desiring to replace Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo: what he would do about the much-reviled Arroyo upon assuming office. While his rivals all vowed to throw the book at her, Villar said nary a nasty word.

And so, the Villar armada blitzed the media. And, as expected, his poll numbers went up and up and up until he came up to a statistical dead heat with Noynoy Aquino.

But then, in the cruelest traditions of Murphy’s law (If something can go wrong, it will), things began to unravel.

Villar’s Senate colleagues pursued accusations against him of using his power and influence as speaker of the House of Representatives and as Senate president to provide undue advantages to his business interests. Among others, the C-5 extension public works project translated into billions drained from the national coffers and poured into Villar’s bank account.

Some nasty punster then came up with an alternative to "Sipag at Tiyaga" -- "C5 at Taga." The last word being a Tagalog idiom for an illicit profit.

Then other punsters went to town, creating funny versions of his "bathing in garbage" story and the one about being so poor, his brother died from lack of medicine.

Some digging into Villar’s background exposed these stories as the product of a copywriter’s over-imaginative mind. That, by itself, violated a cardinal rule in advertising: Make sure your puffery can be supported by facts.

Then stories of land-grabbing and questionable get-rich-quick schemes began to surface. And all Villar and his apologists could do was to dismiss the accusations as "politically motivated."

And for the coup de grace, another punster added two and two together -- namely, Villar and Arroyo -- and concocted the name, Villarroyo. And for the final flourish, they changed his name to Money. MONEY VILLARROYO.

As if that was not enough, the law of unintended consequences has come into play. Villar’s billions in media spending has begun to bother the simple minded masses. "How does he expect to recoup all of that investment???" they have now begun to ask.

If you know something about communications jujitsu or the technique of using your opponents strength against him, then you must agree that this is exactly what has been inflicted on Manny Villar.

The latest SWS survey tells us that Noynoy Aquino, who has not been spending as much as Villar, has surged ahead with a 9-point spread, caused mainly by a significant dive in Villar’s poll ratings. Another survey, this time by Manila Standard, shows an even bigger spread of Aquino: 13 points.

In the face of all these, what are Villar’s options?

OPTION ONE: Fire his creative brain trust. In fact, burn them on a stake for not allowing facts to get in the way of their fiction.

The trouble with that is, Villar can’t be sure that the replacement will be better. In fact, at this stage of the campaign, all the creative brains-for-hire in Manila are already busy on the campaigns of other candidates.

OPTION TWO: Fire the columnists, newscasters, and commentators in the Villar payroll. Apparently, these folks have lost all credibility and anything they say FOR Villar is taken AGAINST him by the public.

The trouble with that is, these AC-DC journalists (attack-and-collect, defend-and-collect) will probably be merrily writing for another batch of presidential candidates the next day. Maybe, Villar should just pay them to STOP WRITING and STOP TALKING.

OPTION THREE: Ressurect Garci and Lintang Bedol and bring back the Hamburjer Man into the Comelec.

Of course, there is a FOURTH OPTION, which Villar may not fully appreciate. And this is the possibility that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may have been stringing him along and really has no intentions of handing over the presidency to him. There is a Tagalog phrase for that: "Ginigisa sa sariling mantika." (Frying him in his own lard).

Meanwhile, to revive his spirits, Villar may want to seek the counsel of his Holiness Mike Velarde, who could advise him in impeccable English: "Strong your heart, for in the long of time, you will success!"

Related articles by Zemanta

• The C5 Extension Projects: How The Lies Were 'Spinned' (bigdaddyrichard-swirlingthoughts.blogspot.com)
• Villar Chickened Out Once More - No Show At The Senate Today! (bigdaddyrichard-swirlingthoughts.blogspot.com)