Villar to Rivals: Reveal Campaign Donors

MANILA, Philippines—Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manny Villar on Sunday dared his rivals in the presidential race to reveal their political campaign donors as he criticized those who claim to be running a “people’s campaign.”

"Show us who your donors are and we’ll tell you what interest to you is dearest,” Villar said in a statement.

“We’re issuing a proverbial habeas corpus to all the campaign funders of my rivals,” he said.

The donors’ list, Villar said, will put to test the campaign propaganda of some presidential candidates that they are transparent and that theirs is being fuelled by a “people’s campaign.”

No presidential candidate, he pointed out, could claim transparency and independence if he would keep in his stable most of the big-time industrialists and corporate titans and refer to it as a “people’s campaign.”

He was quick to clarify though that he has no quarrel with big businessmen pouring their funds into the campaign chest of his closest rivals.

In fact, Villar said, he understands why the corporate titans were not backing him probably because they perceived him as an “outsider.”

“I just can’t stomach hypocrites who tell the public that they are running a people’s campaign when the combined net worth of all their contributors betrays the very essence of a people’s campaign,” Villar said.

For his part, Villar claimed that he has nothing to hide as far as his campaign funds are concerned since he was practically running and bankrolling his own campaign.

He likewise defended his television and radio advertisements from criticisms, saying the use of his impoverished past in these ads were “not exaggerated or distorted.”

“My television commercials are also not merely a storyboard, but my life story. The jingle ‘Naging Mahirap’ for instance is composed especially for me. I told my life story to the composer, then the song was made,” he pointed out.

Source: Inquirer