BIZ BUZZ: Manny Villar, campaign manager
Property tycoon Manuel Villar Jr. may be ranked by Forbes as the country’s richest Filipino, with an estimated net worth of $17.2 billion as of April 1 this year.
But to Camille Villar, who is gunning for a Senate seat in the coming mid-term elections, what’s more important is that he is “the world’s best campaign manager.”
The former senate president and speaker takes time out of his packed schedule to accompany her during meetings and sorties and to give advice to his “favorite daughter,” being a veteran in political circles.
A particularly valuable piece of advice he has given her amid a sharply divided political landscape is to be a friend to everyone.
The elder Villar says he remains a friend to both the Duterte and Marcos camps, for example, and has expressed confidence that his daughter has their support. After all, “they know her.”
For the younger Villar, she says she is very much aware of the doubters who think of her as nothing more than a “nepo baby” whose main qualification is being related to Manny and Cynthia Villar.
The 39-year-old shrugs off the criticisms, vowing to just continue with her campaign and remain on message, that she has her own qualifications and experience that she can bring to the table and that she can ably represent her generation.
For the Villars, haters gonna hate, so may as well just shake them off and hope for the best in what promises to be a challenging climb to the Magic 12 circle.
