Is This Lavish Mansion Owned By Sen. Manny Villar?

Now there’s a circulating e-mail that contains intriguing pictures of an unknown mansion.

The e-mail starts with the question: “Who owns a house like this?” and then showed various pictures of the purported mansion, which had opulent Victorian-style interiors.

Then the email asks the following intriguing query: “Imagine who would have such taste and live in such opulence?”

• An American Billionaire?

• A Saudi Prince?

• Louis XIV of France ?

Savour the pictures then scroll to the bottom of the page to see who owns this Work of Art.

The e-mail-sender ends his/her message with the following: “While Filipinos starve, and die because of abject poverty and while Sen. Villar brags that he had poor beginnings and he had helped his poor countrymen over and over again… but look now.. he and his family live like this, his GREED kills his poverty stricken fellow Filipinos.”

The circulating chain e-mail claims that this great wealth is owned by none other than Filipino billionaire and presidential candidate Senator Manny Villar. The Mansion is said to be located in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States. However, Villar allies claimed the pictures of so-called Villar’s Mansion to be a “hoax.”

According to an ABS-CBN report, the politically intriguing e-mail has been circulating as early as 2008 and that the mansion was first linked to Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe. So it appears that this story really is a political hoax. (Check the story of snopes.com here).

The reports states:

A copy of the e-mail about Mugabe’s mansion also had the same wording as the recent e-mail about Villar, with minor changes to make it appear that it was written for a Filipino audience.

The Snopes website said that the mansion is not in Salt Lake City but in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. It also noted that the mansion has been extensively photographed because it is sometimes used as a site for TV shows and films.

Snopes also revealed that the mansion has been linked to various personalities such as former Nigerian military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, Indian film star Shahrukh Khan, and Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

In a phone interview, Nacionalista Party spokesman Gilbert Remulla downplayed the latest attempt to besmirch the reputation of Villar.

“Who would want to buy a mansion in Salt Lake City? Are there papers to support it?” he said, adding that there was absolutely no truth to the rumor.

He added: “The campaign being waged by Villar’s opponents reaches record lows everyday, starting with the false associations of ‘Villaroyo.’ It only shows that his opponents are insecure and desperate. We pray that they campaign on platforms and capabilities rather than mudslinging.”

At least one of those who forwarded the e-mail about Villar has apologized. Domingo Guevara Jr. of the Guevara Group of Companies apologized to the Villar camp for forwarding the bogus e-mail to his contacts. He said he issued his apology “not because I support Villar but I wish to be fair to all concerned.”

The Nacionalista Party claimed this e-mail hoax is the latest in a series of attempts to disseminate black propaganda against Villar, who is being linked to the C-5 Road extension scandal. The Senator allegedly used his political position and influence to cause the C-5 public road project to be constructed.

Villar allegedly made the insertion by virtue of his position as Finance chairman and as Senate president to ensure that his property would be paid right away. Despite the overwhelming evidence against him, Villar went to the Senate on February 2 to deny the charges against him. He delivered a privilege speech, refused to entertain questions from his colleagues and left the session hall after his hour-long rhetoric. (Read part of his speech here.)

However, it is publicly known that Villar bought the historic 6,000-square meter Jose P. Laurel Mansion in Mandaluyong City. Former President J.P. Laurel stayed in the 3-story, 7-bedroom mansion dubbed as “Villa Pacencia”, which was erected in 1957. In 2008, the Laurel family sold “Villa Pacencia” to Villar and his wife Cynthia.

Whether presidentiable Manny Villar is a filthy rich or not, he reminds me of the following line from my favorite book Atlas Shrugged:

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. Money is so noble a medium that is does not compete with guns and it does not make terms with brutality. It will not permit a country to survive as half-property, half-loot.