Bulatlatan
Written by: Vincent Wenceslao
Published: Bulatlatan, March 12, 2010;
Source: Bulatlatan snapshot at the Internet Archive;
Markup: Simoun Magsalin.
Senator Franklin Drilon’s expose’ on the Savannah Subdivision Project of Manny Villar’s real-estate company, Savannah Communities, cracked open the “tip of the iceberg.” Manny Villar accumulated riches in his real-estate businesses by violating Philippine laws that prohibit the conversion of irrigated agricultural lands and by directly sabotaging the CARP distribution of lands to the landless tillers.
This concrete case debunks the demagoguery of Villar and his Nacionalista Party in their platform, “Response to the People’s Concerns” where Villar and the NP promised:
“the development of agricultural lands and providing livelihood opportunities shall raise the standard of living in the rural areas and increase manpower productivity.”
“Food production should be geared towards food self-sufficiency. Emphasis should be given to staple crops such as rice and corn.”
“We shall develop a National Land Use Policy that promotes optimum utilization of natural resources for agricultural production…”
“A land to the tiller program is a vital element of a comprehensive strategy for economic and social development..”
The Savannah case of Iloilo and the numerous business engagements entered into by Villar, caused the land conversion of precious rice and corn lands all over the country, to give way to his unreasonably priced so-called “low-cost” housing projects. His mode of operation runs contrary to what the Villar-Nacionalista platform declares.
Villar paid his way through bribery in DAR, the Registrar of Deeds and DENR to effect the unlawful conversion of CARP lands. How can he clean the government of grafters and corrupt officials if he himself is one of them?
Villar exemplifies the classic Philippine ruling class elite. He may have grown up in Tondo ages ago and crawled up to college through “sipag at tiyaga.” But when he used his in-laws’ (the KBL warlord Filemon Aguilar of Las Piñas) to capitalize his real-estate projects and built up his own wealth as the Filipino Taipan, he already crossed “class lines” and became ‘traitor’ to his original class, anakpawis.
As a top government official who use power and influence to further aggrandize himself with more wealth and power, Villar is now one of the leading Bureaucrat Capitalists of the Philippines.
Villar’s political party, the Nacionalista Party is one of the oldest traditional elitist Party which sprung up from the old Partido Federal of the Philippine Assembly days in 1930s. The Nacionalista party together with the Liberal Party were the political enclaves of the filthy rich ruling classes when the two-party political system came up.
The rich sugar barons, shipping magnates, logging magnates, tobacco monopolists, big-bankers occupied seats in the national legislature and executive offices, divided between the Nacionalist and Liberal parties. When Ka. Amado Guerrero wrote the “Philippine Society and Revolution” he identified the members of the two parties as the bureaucrat capitalists who are ‘lapdogs’of US Imperialists in the country.
The ‘ugly head’ of right opportunism looms over the top CPP leadership. No less than the CPP’s 41st Anniversary Statement on December 26, 2009, unabashedly unfurled its support for Manny Villar and the Nacionalist Party.
The statement rightfully appraised the situation as, “The rotten unjust ruling system in chronic crisis is overripe for overthrow and replacement by the people’s democratic system.”
Further, the CPP statement lashed out at the reactionary political parties who have nothing fundamental to offer to the people:
“The major political parties and coalitions vying for offices in the 2010 elections, except Makabayan, avoid or even oppose the people’s demand for national indpendence and genuine democracy and do not criticize and repudiate “free market” globalization and the US-instigated policy of terror against the people. The Lakas-Kampi party of the ruling clique clings to its discredited antinational and antidemocratic policies. The major opposition parties, like the Liberal Party and the Partido ng Masang Pilipino concentrate on pretending to be for good governance to dissociate themselves from the scandalous corruption of the Arroyo regime.”
Now dear comrades and friends, where is the Nacionalista Party here. Why wasn’t it mentioned as one of those anti-national, anti-democratic and anti-people ‘trapo’ parties. Has its basic reactionary character changed?
The statement shamelessly praised the Tondo-Boy-turned-Bureaucrat-Capitalist, Manny Villar and called him “the most progressive presidentiable”:
“Among the four major presidential candidates, former Senate President Villar seems to be the most patriotic and progressive insofar as he advocates the interests of Filipino businessmen, expresses sympathy for the workers and peasants and condemns human rights violations.”
The CPP leaders pretended to be modest with their endorsement, but actually lambasted the Villar presidential rivals, as if the former is less elitist or less reactionary than the others:
“However, it remains to be seen whether he can win and prove himself any better than his major political rivals who have bloodstained records of opposing the demands of the workers and peasants, like Aquino of Hacienda Luisita notoriety, Teodoro of being the mad dog defense secretary of Arroyo and Estrada of having a bellicose record during his failed presidency.”
Any political analyst will conclude that the CPP has selected Villar as its candidate in the May 2010 elections. And this was widely made public, as the statement was published in the official website of the CPP-NPA-NDF and were released to the national broadsheets.
The endorsement was corroborated by the inclusion of known CPP comrades, Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza, as candidates in the Nacionalista Party official party slate. Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis, Kabataan Partylist chapters are actively postering and campaigning for Manny Villar as their presidential bet in their bailiwicks. The CPP grapevines report that Villar contributed as much as P60M to the CPP treasury in exchange for a 3M command vote delivery.
“The gods must be crazy,” this was the comment blurted out by a CPP party member in one of their collective meetings. “The CPP leadership framed a five-year plan to build up revolutionary capacities to attain a strategic stalemate with the reactionary regime. The basic requirement was the massive recruitment of 200,000 party members, the enlistment of NPA commanders and redfighters to fill up 60 platoons more in order to increaase the guerilla fronts from 120 to 180 nationwide.”
“These can only be achievable if millions of oppressed masses have lost their confidence on the existing bourgeois democratic system and opted for socialism and communism; if the masses will decide “not to live in the old order” and wage people’s war to bring down the ruling political system. And now here we are calling on the people to participate in elections and vote for progressive senators and a reactionary presidentiable,” the comrade said.
If the masses will be encouraged to participate in the reactionary elections; if the people will be asked to pin their hopes on bureaucrat capitalist demagogues; if they can not distinguish Satur Ocampo from Manny Villar and Loren Legarda and Bongbong Marcos, then the CPP leadership have towed them away from pursuing the victory of people’s war.
The negotiations with Villar and the Nacionalista Party were initiated by the CPP exiles in Utrecht under the leadership of Jose Ma. Sison. Satur Ocampo and his Bayan Muna and the United Front cadres of the CPP are under his tutelage. The funds generated from the traditional elites who negotiated with the CPP leaders and Bayan Muna goes to their electoral organizations and Utrecht leaders. If ever, there are lesser funds, generated through the “permits to campaign” and revolutionary taxes controlled by the guerilla front-based party echelons. There is now an ongoing tug-of-war for resources between the leftist ‘politicos’ living in style and the comrades living austerely in hard struggle in the countrysides.
The CPP leaders have essentially surrendered their initiatives to the reformist process of reactionary elections. The aftermath of the May 2010 elections will see the “de-Gloriafication” of the ruling reactionary government. It will be a re-emergence of a ‘cleansed’ bourgeois elitist government that will keep the masses forever hoping again for reforms. Renewed confidence will be bestowed to the corrupt bureaucrat capitalists and the masses will further suffer in deepening poverty and despair. The right opportunists in the CPP leadership have delivered the revolutionary forces and people into the hands of the bureaucrat capitalists.