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Senator Manny Villar standing before a nation
as a living example of the world’s children.
Senator Manny B. Villar
"Mr.
Sipag at Tiyaga"
Senator, Republic of the Philippines
Manuel Bamba Villar
Jr. he is, a Filipino businessman and
politician. According to Forbes Asia October
2007 issue, he was the 5th richest Filipino. He
serves as the Senate President of the
Philippines which he assumed at the start of the
Third Regular Session of the 13th
Congress.
Born to Manuel Montalban, Sr., a government
employee at Cabanatuan and Curita Bamba, a
seafood dealer at Pampanga and Bataan on
December 13, 1949 at Tondo, Manila, and Manny
grew up just like what his mother used to do. He
has eight siblings and is responsible for
helping his mother earn profit and providing hi
own allowance in order for him to go to school.
He works hard until he graduated at college with
a master’s degree in business administration and
accountancy. He worked hard and did not stop
daring to dream big for him and his family. He
continued to be a fish and shrimp trader at the
market wherein his working hour starts when the
fresh fishes’ and shrimps’ catch have arrived.
After working for hours in the morning, he will
then proceed to his next destination: his
school.
After he had graduated, he then worked to
different companies. He worked as an accountant
at the country’s biggest accounting firm, the
Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co.) but then
resigned shortly after. He managed to have a
seafood dealing business to restaurants but then
it did not worked out. He was employed again at
a Private Development Corporation of the
Philippines as seller of World Bank loans. He
decided to depart again and established his own
sand-and-gravel business in 1975 with the
capital of 10,000 pesos. Manny has been known as
the housing industry leader and the biggest
homebuilder for the poor and middle class
Filipino families in Southeast Asia. He was
called as “the dean of the (Philippine) real
estate industry” by the Philippine Center for
Investigative Journalism.
He began his political career in 1992 when he
won three consecutive times in Las Piñas and
Muntinlupa as representative and became the
leader of House’s economic team. He passed
several economic reforms naming New Foreign
Investments Act, the New Magna Carta for Small
and Medium Enterprises, and the restructuring of
the Central Bank of the Philippines. After
serving as a representative, he was elected as
the Speaker of the House of Representatives in
1998. His career as politician continued as he
won twice as a Senator of the Republic of the
Philippines.
His works were recognized and he received awards
and distinctions from major organizations. Few
of these are as follows: One of the Ten
Outstanding Young Men Award (1986), Agora Award
for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing
Management (1989), Most Outstanding Certified
Public Accountant (1990), Most Outstanding
University of the Philippines Alumnus (1991),
and several Honoris Causa from major colleges
and universities.
With his “sipag at tiyaga” (hard work and
perseverance) as his all time trademark, Senator
Manny Villar made his way to defeat the smallest
of all possibilities for an underprivileged to
be well known and admired by people who
seemingly experience as he did before. He
succeeded because he wanted to. His life
improved for he accepted changes. Though tired
from work, he continued to study so to pursue
what he wanted in life. He did not bother to
stop studying because he dreamt that someday it
would alter his path. |
