Villar banking on 9 years in House, husband’s work to help her in Senate

SENATOR  CYNTHIA VILLAR  Former Las Piñas Representative Cynthia Villar explains to the media why she’s capable of fulfilling her duties as a newly-elected Senator. Besides being wife to Senator Manny Villar, she cites her nine years in Congress. Video by Ryan Leagogo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Former Las Piñas Representative and now senator-elect Cynthia Villar is confident that she knows enough about the legislative process and what is expected of a member of the Senate.

In a chance interview with reporters before she was proclaimed Saturday night by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) en banc, sitting as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC), she said that her nine years as a member of the House of Representatives has more or less equipped her for work as a senator.

Former Las Piñas Representative Cynthia Villar. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

“I was in Congress for nine years so more or less I have an idea and I’m married to a senator, I understand the work they do there,” she said.

The newly-proclaimed senator was accompanied by her husband, outgoing senator Manny Villar, and their three children – Paolo, Mark, and Camille.

She will continue her husband’s work in the Senate – refile the measures that have not yet been passed such as his bills for overseas Filipino workers, farmers, for the provision of incentives for small and medium enterprises and industries that are labor-intensive.

Villar said it would be difficult to outdo the outgoing senator’s track record as he became Senate President and had also been the Speaker at certain points of his political career but said that these should not overshadow what she intends to achieve in the Senate.

“I will also do something that I want to do–like promote job creation,” she said.

Villar said she was sticking to her “hanepbuhay” advocacy which she felt gave her chances of winning the midterm elections a boost.

“They must share my advocacy for hanepbuhay,” she said.