Drilon exposes Villar’s ‘conversion scam’
With the controversy of the C-5 Road Extension hounding after him, Nacionalista presidential bet Senator Manuel Villar is again faced to answer accusations thrown against his family-owned Vista Land.
Very recently, Liberal Party senatoriable Franklin Drilon exposed that Villar’s company was involved in the illegal land conversion.
Particularly, the former senate president claimed that Vista Land’s Savannah has converted 12.7 hectares of irrigated rice land in Brgy. Hibao-an, Pavia, Iloilo into a residential place.
Information claimed that the whole of Savannah is growing to a 300-hectare major real estate development composed of various subdivisions within, as well as an educational institution, church, several community activity areas, tree parks, and commercial establishments among others.
It stretches from the towns of San Miguel, Oton, to Pavia in Iloilo province.
“That is prohibited under the law. So, we bring this out so that we could show the propensity of Sen. Villar to sacrifice public interest just for his own business interest. We hope that issues such as this could merit discussions in the press and not just inundated by commercials of presidential candidate Villar,” he stressed.
Drilon made the expose during the Liberal Party’s sorties in the city and province of Iloilo very recently.
Meanwhile, when asked how was Villar or his company able to pull through the alleged conversion, Drilon said that they have yet to find the details.
“But number one, former Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Sec. Rene Villa said that he refused to sign the papers for the conversion. It was on September 14, 2007 when it was signed by current DAR Secretary Nasser Pangandaman and on that date, Sen. Villar was the president of the Senate,” he added.
Villa is a congressional bet in Iloilo under the Liberal Party.
“So, one conclusion that can be thrown is that he used his office in order to force the conversion of this land which could not be converted,” he added.
