MANILA – For Senator Cynthia Villar whose family owns one of the country’s big real estate companies, the claim of controversial businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles that former senator Manuel Villar has asked for campaign fund is difficult to believe.
”Do you think Senator Villar needs it (Napoles’ money),” Villar said, referring to her husband who ran but lost in the 2010 presidential election.
When asked if Napoles’ supposed campaign contribution was just a small fraction of their wealth, Villar said “we don’t consider them coins. We earned every income the hard way.”
Villar maintained the distinction, formerly held by her husband, as the richest member of the Philippine Senate based on the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) in 2013.
The Villar couple has a combined net worth of Php 1.626 billion as of last year.
Napoles claimed her sworn supplemental affidavit that she met with former Senator Villar in Shaw Boulevard to give him campaign contributions.
”If you have a company, we have dividends, they give it to us. We’re entitled to that so we don’t have a problem with that. Besides, if we can’t run for office on our own, then we would no longer run,” Villar said.
Villar also denied that she was among those who allegedly transacted with Napoles when the lady senator was still a member of the House of Representatives.
The lawmaker said she did not know that the 20 computers given to her constituents in Las Pinas by a project implemented by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) came from the PDAF.
”I wanted to return them but they were issued in 2003. They are already probably broken,” Villar said.
Villar said it should be the DOTC to be investigated because they were just recipients of the project.
”My God! If I had only known that those computers came from Napoles, then I would not have accepted them. Those are small stuff. I was just concerned of our schools,” Villar said.
Villar said some people have been using Napoles for their own interest.