AQUINO

It was Liberal Party standard bearer Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III’s turn to cast aspersions against his closest rival to the presidency, Nacionalista Party's Senator Manuel Villar, during a speech before members of the influential Makati Business Club last Thursday.

AlthoughAquino did not name names, he was certainly referring to Villar when he described a presidential aspirant who has questionable financial and political ethics. Villar is currently facing a possible censure by the Senate.

"If we agree that change is necessary, how can a presidential aspirant, whose own financial and political ethics are questionable, be effective in leading transformation as the head of the bureaucracy?

“How can a leader, who is benefiting from the status quo, be able to restore a civic sense and pride in our citizenry? The leader who has used public office for private gain will always be the most committed enemy of change," Aquino said.

Later in the MBC-sponsored forum at the Peninsula Manila Hotel, Aquino once again took a swipe against Villar when he recounted how a Filipino-Chinese businessman offered to donate to the Liberal Party campaign.

"Quote his very words; he said in our headquarters, 'Bumili na kayo ng commercial nyo. Naririndi na ako sa isang iyon.' That statement of the Chinoy businessman really made my day," Aquino said.

Villar earlier invoked delicadeza to discourage Aquino from signing a Senate resolution that seeks to penalize Villar on alleged budget insertions for the C5 extension project.

Aquino said he cannot heed such advice, especially since "it is our obligation to resolve the issue."

Aquino also urged Villar to stop resurfacing the alleged interest of the Cojuangco family in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project, saying his family's involvement in the project is superficial unlike his interest in the construction of Daang Hari Highway that runs through housing villages owned by Villar's corporation.

Aquino said he is also convinced Villar will protect President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from lawsuits if he becomes president in the May 2010 elections.

"I was taught that if you do not fight an oppressive structure, you are actually supporting it. If [Villar] claims that he is not a quarrelsome kind of person, then it'll be hard for us to expect that he will make the Arroyo administration answer all the controversies attributed to it," he added.

Aquino also told some 800 executives in the forum that he decided to seek the presidency “to repair the damage that has been wrought on our democratic institutions by those who have sought to manipulate them for their own selfish ends”.

Aquino criticized “the lack of political will to faithfully implement the many world-class laws,” and called it the country's main problem. He said his budget team estimated that around P280 billion was lost from the national budget due to corruption, and that he has been working to correct this in the Senate by focusing on oversight and investigations.

The senator has called for an audit of the government's P1.4-billion confidential and intelligence funds. He has also investigated anomalies and delays in government projects such as the Fertilizer Fund Scam, the NBN ZTE deal, and the Subic Clark-Tarlac-Expressway, which took eight years to finish.