A Road to Nowhere and Six Billion to Feed their Greed

I still have no idea how I should title this blog, but this is just a reaction to the current C5 controversy that is happening in the Philippine Senate whose majority had obviously fallen to the trap of partisan or let's just say selfish politics.  This blog is NOT a support for Manny Villar but a reaction to the way people have judged our humble community who will be the direct beneficiary of the C5 road extension that the media had perceived as the "Road to Nowhere" and that nowhere is a community where I have lived all my life and have always been proud of the cultural heritage that has spanned for more than 300 years.

I have never lived in a Camella or Crown Asia subdivision, a recent introduction to our centuries old town being one of the dozen families or so who could trace our historical roots in a poor pueblo called Las Pinas establihsed by the Agustinnian Recollects in 1795.

It is not just a cultural bias for being part of a community that is being falsely attacked but because of my extensive experience and technical training in conducting economic analyses of land conversion projects and the impact of urbanization of coastal communities that has led to great inequities among our country. In doing my work all over the Philippines, I have always kept in mind to pay my respects to the local customs and respect the people regardless whether they are rich, poor, educated or not whether I'm a lowly project researcher or an ADB funded consultant.

I was always accepted and whenever people asked for my province, I have always referred to Las Pinas as the only place in the world where I could trace my family's historical roots but most of the people I meet perceive the Las Pinas of the other side of our town, the old farms that were converted to Philam, BF, Pilar and of course the Camella, Brittany and Crown Asia that are all attached to Manny Villar.

For us, the recent events in the Senate are obviously false accusations. I work in Ortigas Center and the time I will save to contribute to the productivity of this country is now being delayed by senators who fail to look at evidence and simply flaunt their false prides, remember I also pay my taxes.The senate is painting a public perception that the C-5 extension that will only benefit Manny Villar's properties which are just a few parcels of land and is not the total land area in which the highway has traversed, most of it are properties of old families from our town including ours. Is the senate now accusing us to chip in to the 6 Billion that the Enrile report is asking us to pay for being profiteers? Are they telling us that those of us  who haven't sold our lands are also criminals  regardless of the circumstance  for stealing from our fellow Filipinos because the value of our property has increased? If anyone has profited in that project, no doubt it is the DPWH who have just simply prolonged the agony of our community who have no direct access to a major highway going to Manila. We have been expecting that project to have been completed more than a decade ago but is just being prolonged not just by the DPWH but now by the Senate, which have fallen trap to their politics of malice and greed!

Some of us simply sold the land for practical reasons, I remember in the 1980s  the money we received to finance the education of my brother in Dela Salle University after selling a few square meters with our relatives to a man named Manny Villar. Would it matter if that man becomes the president when we have benefited from my brothers education now that he's a judge advocate in the international courts?

But even before all of it became land, all of it were just salt beds that became silted because of the the pollution from the Paranque River that made the salt beds unproductive. Regardless, whether Manny Villar wins or not I will still live on this town that the country is now branding as Nowhere!