Manny Villar nobody’s running mate, says wife

MANILA—Former Senator Manuel Villar Jr. will never agree to be the running mate of Vice President Jejomar Binay or anybody else, his wife Senator Cynthia Villar said Wednesday.

The former Senate president, who lost in the last presidential election, would rather stay on as chairman of the real estate company Vista Land and Landscapes Inc. than run for vice president, the senator said.

“That’s out of the question. He’s not running for vice president. He prefers to tend to his business than run for vice president,” she told reporters.

Manny Villar. FILE PHOTO

Binay had been earlier reported to be eyeing Manny Villar as a running mate. But the pair has not met to discuss politics, the senator said.

So far, Villar has been mum about his political plans in 2016. But if his wife were to be asked, she would prefer that he stay away from politics for now.

“He doesn’t say what he wants. Of course, he’ll be the one to decide on it. So far, he has not given any indication of running [for president],” she said.

Otherwise, she added, “I would prefer a simple life.”

After all, the senator maintained that the presidency was “destiny,” and not “something that you plan [for].”

Manny Villar mounted a high-profile media campaign in the run-up to the May 2010 presidential elections, going toe to toe with then presidential candidate Benigno Aquino III in the surveys.

In the end, he placed third behind Aquino and former President Joseph Estrada.

The national outpouring of grief and sympathy for President Corazon Aquino, who died in August 2009, sparked calls for her son, then Senator Aquino, to run for president, snowballing into a movement.

The groundswell of support translated into 15 million votes for Aquino, who won by 5 million votes over his closest rival, Estrada.

Cynthia Villar said the Nacionalista Party has three choices for a presidential candidate: Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

She counted out her husband, who is the party president.

“They are aggressive in a different way,” she said of her three colleagues and party-mates. She acknowledged that the reckoning date for the declaration of candidacies would be mid-2015. “But if they are not sure, and don’t decide, who are you going to field? Otherwise, nobody should be rushing.”

The senator, however, doubted that Cayetano and Trillanes mounted the inquiry into allegations of corruption and ill-gotten wealth against Vice President Jejomar Binay because they were positioning themselves for the presidency.

“They’re saying they wanted to investigate. It’s not really about the presidency. I think they see something [in Binay] that they don’t like. Koko (Aquilino) Pimentel is not running for president. They have personal reasons,” she said.

Pimentel chairs the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee that is hearing the charges linking Binay to anomalies while he was mayor of Makati City.

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