At home with Manny & Cynthia Villar: The Senator is a gardener, the Congresswoman a weaver

It is so easy to feel at home in the living room of Senator Manny Villar. He warmly welcomes you like an old friend and as soon as you are comfortably seated on the soft sofa beside his chair, he himself stretches his feet on the coffee table.

That’s how comfortable you would feel with an old friend. We were, after all, schoolmates in UP Diliman in the late ‘60s. Those were the years when students spent more time rallying in Plaza Miranda than researching in the library. And students certainly learned more lessons reading manifestos and scribbling placards than writing those obligatory term papers.

“I actually joined rallies for a second reason — to get a free ride to Quiapo,” Manny laughs as he goes into nostalgic mode. “I was helping my mother sell fish in Divisoria market. That was what I was doing mostly during my first two years in college — work, work, work. It was hard, nahirapan ako. I came from Mapua High School, and I only had a barkada of three when I was a freshman.”

“Did you ever like Spanish?” he asks, reminding me that it was, ugh, a compulsory subject back then. “And I didn’t like Humanities either,” Manny adds. “I liked music, though. Do you remember that it was better to take the DM bus going to Quiapo because it had stereo music? I never liked JD buses because they didn’t have music onboard.”

Hmmm, you like Rod Stewart? I ask him, as I hear Stewart’s soothing song As Times Goes By from their stereo.

“Oh, I like everything — classics, jazz…There are about 100,000 songs on my iPod,” he smiles.

For one who hated Humanities in college, you have quite a good eye for art, I tell him.

A beautiful Manansala mural dominates one side of the living room, while a Botong hangs on the other. I also spotted an Angelito Antonio, an Allan Cosio, Onib Olmedos, Marivic Rufinos and a highly-treasured Cory Aquino painting.

And yes, a lot of Glenn Bautistas. Glenn Bautista was one of the outstanding student artists in UP during our time.

“Ay naku, that’s how we got started appreciating art,” says his wife, Las Piñas Congresswoman Cynthia Villar, as she enters the sala. “We bought one painting from Glenn, and then kept buying and buying, he is really good.”

Even the Villar children — Paolo, 31, Mark, 30, and Camille, 23, have imbibed that love for art, aside from the work ethic so ingrained in them by their parents.

Now, art forms the heart of the Villar residence, a sprawling structure of white walls, dark wood and big, scenic glass doors that allow a refreshing view of the garden — endless gardens, in fact — all around the house.

I should rather say it is the garden that forms the heart of the Villar home and makes it throb with warmth and a refreshing, natural beauty. Everything in this house seems natural. The light flows in naturally from the glass doors and scenic windows, and you feel as if the house freely breathes the oxygen from the trees and plants that embrace it. There are bamboo trees, red gingers, birds of paradise, bromeliads, orchids, anthuriums, ferns, euphorbias, and chichiricas.

And surprise! It is Manny who is the resident gardener in this home.

“In my lifetime, I have probably planted more than a hundred thousand trees,” Manny proudly declares. “But I have never claimed to be an environmentalist. I just love doing it.”

Pointing out how all the family’s housing projects — particularly Brittany — are always beautifully landscaped, Manny declares: “When it comes to gardening and planting, todo bigay ako (I give my all). That’s why napapaganda ko talaga.”

There are mini bridges and brooks, stone-covered paths and rough wooden benches all around the Villar garden, giving it a natural, rustic feel.

“But would you believe this house started as a small two-bedroom house on a 280-square-meter piece of land that we bought in 1977 here in BF Las Piñas? We got married in l975. Through the years, we just kept on buying a few small empty lots around us — these were so affordable then,” Cynthia recalls.

“All in all, Manny and I have been together for 40 years now, starting in third-year college. I was a dorm resident at Sampaguita and Kamia since my parents’ home was so far away in Las Piñas,” says Cynthia.

Manny adds: “I was a Pan Xenia fratman. Cynthia and I were both in the College of Business Administration. But only now am I beginning to discover that I like to write — in Filipino.”

Lately, too, Manny discovered that the minute you declare that you are running for the presidency of the Philippines, all the political adversaries around you will start aiming to destroy you.

Truth is, Manny did not make the declaration. A newsman asked him the question: Are you running? The answer was a simple, straightforward yes.

“It happened at the birthday party of Grace Poe, which I attended. It was all blown out of proportion.”

Not that he is taking it back. After all the hardships that he has been through, this one should not be too hard for Manny Villar. He has the charm, the charisma, the natural sincerity, the brains, the political prowess. And a very likeable first lady beside him.

Cynthia Villar is so naturally lovable and gracious. And beneath the gentleness that she exudes, you can sense she is a woman of power and intellect. “Mabait sa amin ang mga tao dito sa Las Piñas. My father was in public service here for 50 years. We never really had to spend much during campaigns. The people here are good to us.”

That statement is fortified by so many years of public service from Manny and Cynthia themselves. Right now, Cynthia is focusing on her projects as Las Piñas’ congresswoman, such as livelihood opportunities for her constituents. For instance, recently, she found an expert weaver from Abra who was willing to teach housewives how to weave blankets. Cynthia must have been an Igorot weaver in her past life, or a wannabe weaver. Weaver of dreams, weaver of success is more like it. Now, they are producing beautiful blankets from the 17 hand-weaving looms distributed in several barangays.

Projects like these thrill her. And so does the everyday task of receiving visitors from other provinces in the “Lakbay Aral” program, who tour Las Piñas and are welcomed into the Villar home for a simple lunch or merienda. Rich or poor, they are welcomed into this home with a green carpet of hospitality in the garden that Manny built.

“This is our first home, and this will be our last,” says Cynthia.

“But how about Malacañang? That will be your next home,” a visitor reminds her.

“Malacañang?” Cynthia answers. “But that is not a home.”