Villar dreams of joining Billionaires’ Club

DAVAO CITY – Who wants to be a billionaire?

"I want to," says the openly declared richest politician in the country, Senate President Manuel Villar.

This is one dream Villar has also secretly nurtured and kept close to his heart.

While on a break from the ongoing backbreaking campaign for the May 14 elections at the lobby of the Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao, The STAR asked him if he wanted to join the ranks of the country’s three mega-tycoons, Henry Sy, Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Lucio Tan, who all climbed the billionaire ladder and landed among the world’s wealthiest.

Villar admitted, in the deep recesses of his heart, he also wants to join the illustrious and very exclusive Forbes Magazine’s Billionaires’ Club and be counted among the world’s richest.

He even has a timetable. "Give it six months or a year, or just how many months, I will make it to the club," Villar said, looking up the ceiling of the hotel lobby as he was doing a mental calculation, counting off on his fingers, just how long it would take him to do so.

Villar and his wife Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia have a combined net worth of P729,825,335 with zero liability in 2006.

An independent candidate, who has been adopted by the Genuine Opposition, Villar carries out his nationwide campaign onboard his private Lear jet which takes him to any point in the country anytime he wants to.

Villar said there is nothing wrong with his secret dream as he was a self-made man who worked hard for his wealth.

"I did not inherit my wealth. Everybody knows I started from scratch. It was all really ‘sipag at tiyaga’. I did not steal from anyone nor from government," Villar said.

Known to be the "dean of Philippine real estate industry," Villar also became the housing industry leader, building more than 100,000 houses for the poor and middle-class Filipino families under his C&P empire. There is hardly a place in the Philippines where Villar’s real estate firm does not have a presence.