Manny Villar Knows How To Bounce Back

Speaker Manny Villar is the businessman in the current administration. If there is anyone who understands what will bring confidence back into the economy, it is Manny Villar. He knows how it feels to be on the financial brink. His C & P Homes was a high flying realty firm involved in low cost housing until the 1998 economic crisis came.

Manny was among the first to be hit hard by the crisis. And he has learned his lesson. Now, he is shying away from government financed low cost housing. He is however bullish about his middle income housing that is almost totally financed by the private sector. His Crown Asia homes are doing very well, thank you, he proudly declares.

The Speaker constantly talks about the need to encourage more local entrepreneurs. The story of Manny's life reads like a risk taking hard working Chinoy but he is all Filipino with humble beginnings from Tondo. He disputes the commonly held view that Filipinos aren't good entrepreneurs compared to Chinoys or the Bombay. But he says, it is unfortunate that Filipinos don't look up to entrepreneurs, as if making money that way is less than honorable.

Maybe Manny was not included in the powerful Economic Coordinating Committee (ECC) because of the separation of powers principle. But if anyone has earned the right to be there, it is Manny. He has after all, known what it means to try and meet a payroll. Most economists in government only have vicarious experiences in the world of business.

Now Manny says, he is worried that we are giving the wrong signals on Taiwan. No matter how valid the position of Philippine Airline is, the country's current tiff with Taiwan has escalated to the point that we are now on the losing end. Despite some denials, Business World confirmed that ACER, the computer company, is indeed having difficulties in moving inventory and raw materials because of the air rights dispute. This will definitely have an impact on Acer's future employment and expansion plans.

The unilateral announcement about the decision of Taiwan authorities to stop recruiting labor from the Philippines is also the latest in the string of bad news. Manny is worried that we may not be giving Taiwan the attention it deserves. He said he is ready to fly to Taipei to help repair the bilateral ties. I told him as Speaker of the House, he may not be able to do that. But he insists that the idea deserves serious thought.

I think the Taiwanese had been arrogant in that air rights dispute. But we cannot gamble the economic opportunities that normal Taiwan ties bring just to prove a point in support of PAL. Maybe Manny is right about the need for a high level mission to smooth out ruffled feathers. Big China should understand that this is just a pragmatic thing for us to do now. It shouldn't affect our One China policy one bit. Negosyo lang. We simply have to bounce back and Manny Villar knows how.

We received the following e-mail from former Rep. Jerome Paras regarding our column last Friday.

I would like to take exception to that portion of your column in today's issue of The Philippine STAR, attributing to me a P100 million placement in ASB Holdings. That is absolutely not true. The truth is that I personally have no more than P20 million in placement with ASB Holdings which I expect to recover in due time since a repayment plan is already under way.

What may have caused the inaccurate reporting is that I am representing a number of creditors, who are either friends, relatives or business associates, in efforts to recover their placements. These creditors have used my name as reference when they placed their money in ASB Holdings.

It is also perhaps unfair to insinuate that the creditors, myself included, have been reckless in handling their finances. The fact is Mr. Luke Roxas never failed us in the past. To show you the kind of persons who have placed their trust in Mr. Roxas by investing various amounts in ASB Holdings, you need only look at the composition of the Creditors Committee.

Among the members are Atty. Leonardo Siguion Reyna, the head of the venerable Makati law firm; Congressman Rodolfo Tuazon, Chairman of the House Transportation Committee; Mr. William Cheng Lay, Jr., a Director of DBS Bank of Singapore; Atty. Deogracias Eufemio, a bar topnotcher and prominent lawyer; and Mr. Tee Ling Kiat, a respected Filipino Chinese businessman. These persons cannot be considered as imprudent.

The points of Mr. Paras are well taken. However, I still maintain the creditors share part of the blame for not being more cautious. While it might be true that Mr. Luke Chiong Roxas was worthy of their trust in the past, the creditors should have reassessed the situation when the property sector collapsed in the wake of the Asian economic crisis.

As I wrote last Friday, the money problems of Mr. Chiong Roxas are nothing new. I remember warning a sister of mine who had an account in what was then Bank of Southeast Asia, a couple of years or so ago. She didn't have to move her account out because shortly thereafter, the Development Bank of Singapore (DBS) moved in.

I have the highest respect for some of the members of the credit committee particularly Atty. Siguion Reyna (who says he only represents clients but has no placements himself). But just because they are all hot shots in the world of business does not mean they don't make grievous mistakes now and then. My theory is, greed got the better of everyone and greed combined with wishful thinking could make us suspend healthy skepticism and even participate in something illegal.

We should sit back and think about the lessons learned and how we can do better next time.

Ernie Espiritu's joke for today also has to do with money problems.

"I have to have a raise," the man said to his boss. "Otherwise, there are three other companies after me."

"Is that so?" asked the manager. "What other companies are after you?"

"The electric company, the telephone company, and the gas company."

(Boo Chanco's e-mail address is [email protected])