Rags to Riches: The inspiring life story of Senator Manny Villar

Manuel Bamba Villar,Jr.,was born to a simple family in Moriones, Tondo,Manila.His parents are Manuel Montalban Villar, Sr., a government employee and Curita Bamba, a seafood dealer. He is the second child in a brood of nine.Being determined to improve his family's living condition,He worked hard selling shrimps and fish to be able to send himself to school. Manny was a working student at the University of the Philippines, the country's premier institution of higher learning,where he obtained his undergraduate and master’s degree in business administration and accountancy.

After graduation, he worked as an accountant at the country’s biggest accounting firm, Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co) but then he resigned shortly ,and became a financial analyst at the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines where he sells World Bank loans.He again quit his job in convinced that he could make it on his own .

With an initial capital of P10,000 , Villar purchased two reconditioned trucks and started his sand-and-gravel business in Las Piñas. After coming up with a great idea of selling house and lot packages,he became the housing industry leader, and the biggest homebuilder in Southeast Asia, having built more than 100,000 houses for the poor and middle class Filipino families.Through this,Villar was made cover story in the Far Eastern Economic Review and his life story was also featured in some top magazines of the world.

He also gained avarious awards such as:the Ten Outstanding Young Men Award (1986) by the Philippine Jaycees, Agora Award for Outstanding Achievement in Marketing Management (1989), Most Outstanding CPA by the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (1990) and Most Outstanding UP Alumnus (1991).

His career continues to rise, as he engage into politics. He won , the most overwhelming mandate among congressmen in Metro Manila in a stunning political debut; won an unprecedented 142,000 votes ,the highest number of votes for a congressman in the entire country and was elected to become the chairman of the Committee on Entrepreneurship.Manny Villar also gained the remarkable acclaim of 171 of 220 congressman as the speaker of the 12th Congress of the House of Representatives.

In the national elections held last May 14, 2001, he became a Senator of the Republic. Despite being a relative newcomer in national politics, he posted one of the most impressive showings in the national polls, filed 204 bills covering a comprehensive legislative program of action— the first among neophyte senators and the third highest filer among the senators of the 12th Congress of the Philippines. Then, after being elected by his colleagues, he assumed the position of Senate President Pro-Tempore, the second to the highest post in the higher Chamber of Congress.

Senator Manny Villar is indeed the man of numerous accomplishments and heroism and an inspiration to the Filipinos to improve their quality of life and fulfill their dreams through the very values he believes in -- “sipag at tiyaga.”