Manny Villar ( Nacionalista Party )

    Manuel Bamba Villar-  (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and politician. He is formerly a Philippine Senator, and the incumbent president of the Nationalista Party.

    Villar was born to a poor family in Tondo, an impoverished and densely populated district of Manila. After graduating from the University of the Philippines, he worked as an accountant and financial analyst, then launched a highly successful business in real estate. The number of homes built by Villar's companies has totaled to over 200,000 units, and his business career made him one of the country's wealthiest persons.

    Villar entered politics in 1992 when he was elected Congressman representing the district of Las Piñas-Muntinlupa, and later became Speaker of the House of Representatives. As Speaker, he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada by the House of Representatives in 2000. In 2001 he was elected Senator, and served as Senate President from 2006 to 2008. He was the candidate of the Nacionalista Party in the 2010 presidential election, which was won by Benigno Aquino III.

    As a child, Villar initially attended Isabelo delos Reyes Elementary School, a nearby public school in Tondo. He also assisted his mother in selling shrimp and fish at the Divisoria Public Market, as early as age six, in order to help earn the money to support his siblings and himself to school. However, accompanying his mother interfered with his education and he was forced to drop out from school during Grade 1. He was then enrolled at Tondo Parochial School (later renamed Holy Child Catholic School), a private school in Tondo run by priests, to complete his elementary education.

   Villar finished his high school education at the Mapúa Institute of Technology in Intramuros. He attended the University of the Philippines - Diliman and earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1970. He returned to the same school to earn his master's degree in business administration in 1973. He later characterized himself as being impatient with formal schooling, and eager to start working and go into business.

Political Career

   Villar entered politics in 1992 when he was elected to the House of Representatives, representing the district of Las Piñas-Muntinlupa. Due to congressional redistricting, he later represented the district of Las Piñas City. He served for three consecutive three-year terms, consistently posting landslide election victories.

   Villar was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1998, during his third term in congress. As speaker, he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada over corruption allegations in November 2000. Along with a large group of lawmakers which include the Senate President, Villar defected from Estrada's Laban ng Makabayang Masang Pilipino (LAMMP) coalition in order to hasten the process of impeachment. Seconds after the opening prayer, and skipping the traditional roll call, he immediately read a resolution sending the impeachment case to the Senate for trial, bypassing a full vote and ignoring attempts by Estrada allies to delay the proceedings.

   Hours after the impeachment proceedings, congressmen allied with the president led a move to oust Villar from his post as speaker, replacing him with Camarines Surrepresentative Arnulfo Fuentebella, an ally of President Estrada.

   In 2001, barred by constitutional term limits from seeking re-election to a fourth term in the House of Representatives, Villar was succeeded by his wife, Cynthia Villar.

    Villar ran for Senator in the 2001 election. Having recently resigned from Estrada's LAMMP coalition, he ran for Senator as an independent politician, but campaigned as a member of the People Power Coalition, the administration coalition party which was supportive of the recent 2001 EDSA Revolution. He was elected to the Senate with more than 11 million votes, ranking seventh out of 37 candidates. He later won re-election in 2007, running as a member of the Genuine Opposition coalition, ranking fourth out of 37 candidates.

    In July 2006, Villar was chosen Senate President, making him the first post-World War II public official to head both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He had previously held the position of Senate President, as well as the chairmanship of the Committees on Finance, Foreign Relations, Public Order, and Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries.

    In November 2008, Villar lost the support of the Senate majority, due to alleged fabricated accusations thrown on him by political enemies on the C5 project. He then resigned as President of the Senate and was succeeded by Juan Ponce Enrile who later on investigated Villar for C5 scam.

2010 Presidential Campaign:

    Villar was a candidate for President of the Philippines in the May 2010 Presidential election, as the standard bearer of the Nacionalista Party. He filed his certificate of candidacy for president on November 30, 2009, along with his running mate, Senator Loren Legarda. His popular campaign line was "Sipag at Tyaga" (Hardwork and Patience). Villar's campaign platform includes combating poverty and corruption, two major problems between which he believes there is a strong link.

     According to a January 2010 survey by polling firm Pulse Asia and the February 2010 survey from Social Weather Stations, Villar was statistically tied in the lead with his main rival in the election, Senator Benigno Aquino III. In a March survey rival Aquino had regained a significant nine-point lead. Other significant rivals in the presidential race included former President Joseph Estrada and former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro.

    During the presidential campaign, opinion columnist William Esposo claimed that Villar has lied in his TV ads and could not have been poor because his younger brother Danny was admitted to FEU Hospital, which he claims was a top hospital at the time and in 1962, there was no bone marrow transplantation and chemotherapy yet and everyone whether rich or poor died from contracting Leukemia. Villar clarified that his brother was admitted as a charity patient, because the family was unable to afford treatment.Any family member, who is on the verge of death, will definitely be brought to the nearest possible hospital to try and save him, regardless of their status in life.

   Villar placed third in the election, behind Senator Noynoy Aquino and former President Joseph Estrada. On May 11, 2010, a day after the election, Villar was among the first to concede to Aquino.