Here’s a snippet from today’s column by Amando Doronilla in the Daily Inquirer, writing about Manny Villar:

His defiance gives a preview of an attitude that Villar is above censure and accountability for his actions connected to his companies’ activities to push the C-5 project.

The project is covered by appropriations in which he intervened during its budgetary hearings as member of Congress.

There’s no way that he will step down or suspend his campaign for the presidency while a boycott of his allies is preventing the Senate from voting to censure him.

He remains untouchable in this regard. In stonewalling on the committee report, Villar is a law unto himself and above the rules of the Senate on disciplinary action for breach of the rules.

There are no party sanctions to bar him from election activity until he is cleared by the Senate, simply because he is president of the Nacionalista Party.

If Manny "Wysiwyg" Villar believes he is above the law in his current position, how do you think he’ll treat the presidency if he’s elected?

He presents himself as the underdog by claiming he’s not a haciendero or he doesn’t have famous parents and that he was born poor. He claims, "what you see is what you get." Yet, this is not entirely true. What we don’t see is a sinister personality who used his position to benefit from a road construction and uses lapdogs, the media and reasons and excuses to evade sanction.

Don’t believe in his sleek ads. All they show is a person who’s spending obscene amounts of money, desperate to become President of the Philippines.

We wonder why. To alleviate our country from poverty? If you believe in that, you probably also believe the moon is made of cheese.

Some of the more sleek TV ads we see presently are those of presidential aspirant Gilberto "Gibo" Teodoro. They’re well done and captivating. They present Gibo as a youthful, intelligent and idealistic man who will take the Philippines into new heights.

But is he really? In a previous post I expressed wariness over Gibo (you can read that here). After the Ampatuan massacre, my wariness turned to outright distrust.

Instead of me writing about why I now distrust Gibo, here’s a column written by Patricia Evangelista of the Inquirer that best reflects my sentiments.

Read it here: http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100206-251687/The-guns-of-Gibo.

A reader in a comment asked, "are you another emotional voter and self righteous person as everybody who’s alligning themselve (sic) to Noynoy?" (you can read that here).

In truth, we haven’t decided yet who to vote for. But we know absolutely who not to vote for and here we ARE emotional about it. We’re not voting for Manny "WYSIWYG" Villar. In fact, we’ll even do our utmost to campaign against him. Here’s why:

1) He doesn’t want to face the senate. His one-hour show last Tuesday was not to defend himself. It was to get media mileage. If he wanted to defend himself, he would have stayed to answer questions from fellow senators.

2) He hides from his accusers and instead lets his allies and party-mates defend him.

####SIDEBAR####
Look at his allies and party-mates:
Alan Peter Cayetano – His skill is to run circles around the accusations and then run circles around the circles, so the result is truth that isn’t even addressing the truth. A born-again Christian, he knows the truth but doesn’t let the truth set himself free. He’s bound by the lies of Villar.

Aquilino "Nene" Pimentel – once a freedom fighter, he’s now relegated to an old man defending a coward by name-calling (he called Sen. Jamby Madrigal an abused child) and using gutter language by insulting Sen. Mar Roxas and his wife.

Joker Arroyo – another freedom fighter and once known as a maverick who once castigated Villar for almost the same anomaly he now defends him with.
####END OF SIDEBAR####

3) He wastes taxpayers’ money by advocating the boycott of his senate lapdogs so that the senate can not have a quorum and thus cannot accomplish legislative work. You should hear how Cayetano twists the truth in explaining the boycotts. It’s pathetic.

4. He says he’ll alleviate poverty but he’s spending obscene amounts of money in TV ads alone (over 600 million pesos in 2009). If he really wants to help the poor, imagine what that amount could do if spent directly for them.

5. He took advantage of the victims of typhoon Ondoy by flying around in a helicopter with Willie "Mr. Sleaze" Revillame and telling all and sundry how he was helping the victims.

Does that reveal a principled leader? Will he turn a crisis into a cat and mouse game as he did with the senate? Will he hide when pressure bears upon him? Will he politicize situations that have legal bearing?

He accused his accusers of politicking even if the C5 controversy was a legal issue. In branding the C5 controversy as politicking, isn’t he doing the same thing?

There’s something fishy about Money Villar (that’s not a typo). Are we going to take a major risk by electing him?

The man should not become President of the Philippines!

When Atty. Elly Pamatong shouted at the Comelec 2nd division that they were thieves, I suspect not a few Filipinos silently cheered him. While Comelec Chair Jose Melo has tried to project the Comelec as trustworthy, the 2nd division has made some questionable rulings.

One of these is the disqualification of Gov. Grace Padaca on the grounds that a recount revealed she lost the election by 1,051 votes. The funny thing is that the Comelec said that one man was responsible for writing those 1,051 questionable ballots. Can I say, ridiculous?

It is rumored that the Comelec 2nd division can be swayed by the highest bidder. While that may seem extreme, it is not implausible.

So when Pamatong accused the Comelec of being thieves, he may not have been far from the truth.

Filipinos are shocked and are raging inside. And we have been waiting for three days for arrests to be made.

But all we are hearing are sound bites from Malacañang. GMA is talking tough but nothing is happening. Perhaps she can do nothing after helping to create the monster that is the Ampatuan clan. They are, after all, her close allies.

They are, however, turning out to be her worse karma. This is what she gets for cheating in Maguindanao through the Ampatuans. Now the Ampatuans believe they’re demi-gods, able to do anything with impunity.

It is hoped this massacre will haunt her to her death, because we believe she really won’t do anything.

Yet, we hope.