Why not Manny Villar?

I’d been ranting against Manny Villar for so many times that sometimes I get lost in my own rants. So I’m asking myself more than anyone else: Why not Manny Villar?  

I agree with him that poverty should be ended, or if not, I’m willing to compromise, be mitigated. William Pessek of Bloomberg recently described our country in article:

Here we have a nation where one in four lives on less than $1.25 a day, infrastructure is antiquated, corruption is rampant and leaders have one of the worst records in Asia for delivering on promises. Strong growth in China, India, Indonesia and South Korea is leaving the Philippines behind. (See: Poverty Porn Isn’t Much Help in This $1.25 World)

But even in progressive country like Japan, appropriating to international standards, has 17% of the Japanese under poverty line. In the United States, the largest economy in the world, has 15% Americans in poverty. This is not comparative poverty, but I’m speaking of $1.25 daily income, which is the international standard.  Facts that necessarily beg the question: Is electing Manny Villar to the presidency a panacea to poverty? 

Despite his massive spending on advertisements featuring poverty porn, Manny Villar is yet to issue a platform. Indeed, columnist Manolo Quezon wrote that Villar is the only presidential candidate yet to issue a platform, although he notes that Manny Villar and Makabayan through Satur Ocampo and Lisa Maza presented a document identifying “shared principles” which are to this blogger a mere identification of protectionists policies (that statistics and economic studies had proven does not facilitate growth and poverty alleviation).  How will you end poverty? Villar’s answers are elusive. Job creation his ads preach.  But again, having a job does not guarantee an escape from poverty. In Japan, the poor sectors are characterized by analysts as “employed but in lowly paid jobs.”

Here is a thought from  a blogger and sociology major Jowana Bueser:

[Poverty] is not a question of poverty but of honesty. Did Manny Villar lie about the economic standing of his family? I guess a person who earns P22 a day while the average Filipino gets P4 will never allow his kids to celebrate Christmas in the streets. Or worse, let them swim in a sea of garbage

 Even Villar’s claim of ending his own poverty is haunted by tales of influence peddling, using his position in government to advance the interest of his company. But that is another story.