OF TREES AND FOREST The first New Year’s resolutions were made some 4,000 years ago. Since the ancient Babylonians started pledging their allegiance to the reigning king or crowned a new king, and made promises to repay debts in the year ahead in order for the gods to bless them in the new...
With 23 affirmative votes, the Senate approved on third and final reading the measure seeking to provide monthly pension differential to all retirees of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday, January 14. Sen. Mark Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Government...
OF TREES AND FOREST People who have suggested that I should retire and just sit back and enjoy the “fruits of my labor” do not really know me. I have been working all my life. Since the first time I walked with my mother from our Tondo house to Divisoria until today, I have always been an...
House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left), President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (Speaker’s office) It was the Nationalista Party's (NP) turn Tuesday, Jan. 7 to recognize the partnership of House Speaker Martin Romualdez and President...
The Villar Foundation recently honored the cooperative champions at the 2024 Villar Foundation Awards on Poverty Reduction. Villar Awards 2024 Winners. Former Senate President Manny Villar, Senator Cynthia A.Villar together with Senator Mark Villar, Deputy...
OF TREES AND FOREST Why do we celebrate the new year? Why do we go through all the trouble of going back home to the provinces or gathering everyone around the dinner table before the clock strikes midnight? There is a psychological importance to bidding goodbye to the old year and to welcoming a...
Personally, I dream of a country, where dreams are possible. It’s not such an impossible dream, except that dreams-come-true among us Filipinos remain exceptional, not quite common. What I’d like to see in 2025 is more opportunities for Filipinos to seek a life that makes the most of...
OF TREES AND FOREST (Second of two parts) One of my staff asked me recently: “Sir, what was your Christmas like when you were growing up 25 in Tondo?” I do not know why but my memory immediately took me back to Mary Johnston. Mary Johnston Hospital (MJH), run by the United Methodist Church, is...
OF TREES AND FOREST (First of two parts) You hear a lot of people say that Christmas is only for children. Christmas is indeed for children. First, the season is about the birth of child Jesus, our Lord. Second, it is simply wonderful to see the pure and unadulterated happiness in the eyes of...
Rep. Camille Villar (5th from right) of the lone district of Las Piñas City inaugurates Vista Land Bataan's electric vehicle (EV) charging facility. She was joined by her father, former Senate President Manny Villar (4th from left). (Rep. Villar’s office) ...
OF TREES AND FOREST The American industrialist Henry Ford once said, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.” We cannot stop learning once we step out of the university or once we reach a certain age. And it is not just about learning...
Las Piñas City lone district Rep. Camille Villar meeting with overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan (Rep. Villar’s Office) House Deputy Speaker and Las Piñas City lone district Rep. Camille Villar hailed the overseas Filipino...
