OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar A statement released by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and picked up by various news organizations has stirred the pot among Filipino netizens online. In the statement dated July 9, 2021, the DTI’s Bureau of Philippine Standards...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar In my column last June 16, 2021 entitled “Can elections be meaningful in a pandemic?”, I discussed the imperative for our election officials to learn from the lessons of countries who decided to push through with democratic elections...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar I express my condolences to the Aquino family and the entire Filipino nation on the demise of former President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino, III who died and was buried last week. As I said in the statement I issued to the press, I admired the...
OF TREES AND FORESTS Former Senate President Manny Villar Last week, the nation paid tribute to two great Filipinos, separated by more than eighty years, who dedicated themselves to the highest level of excellence and to serving the nation. June 19 was the 160th birth anniversary of Jose Rizal, an...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar The coronavirus seems to be creeping outside the National Capital Region (NCR). The Department of Health has expressed alarm over the increase in COVID-19 infections in provinces specifically in Mindanao. It noted that 25% of fresh cases the...
Of Trees and Forest Former Senate President Manny Villar As we near the halfway mark of the year, it has become increasingly clear that ending the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on our capacity to vaccinate our people. Of course, we should continue to strictly implement health protocols—wear...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar I was reviewing my new website ( www.mannyvillar.com.ph ) that we recently launched. It is a beautiful website that includes information about myself and what we have built over the years in terms of our business. It is meant to inform but...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar There has always been as debate whether successful entrepreneurs are born or made. It’s the classic nature versus nurture debate. Some argue that successful entrepreneurs were born with certain personality and aptitude traits that made them...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns we have experienced for more than a year now has crippled our economy but it has also resulted to some positive changes that we can take advantage of. These are transformations that we can fully utilize...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar This was the word used by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) to describe the growing gap between the number of vaccines available to rich countries and the measly numbers given to developing countries. The latter rely mainly on...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar As Filipinos continue to struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic, a different kind of outbreak has caused a shortfall in pork production and subsequently caused a sharp increase in food prices. While the African Swine Fever (ASF), which has...
OF TREES AND FOREST Former Senate President Manny Villar I applaud the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to allow the private sector to import COVID-19 vaccines “at will”. “No matter the price or how many they want to import, that is fine with me,” the President was quoted as saying...