Cynthia Villar

Cynthia Aguilar Villar (, born Cynthia Ampaya Aguilar on July 29, 1950) is a Filipina politician currently serving as a Senator of the Philippines.

Villar was born on July 29, 1950, in Muntinlupa, then a municipality in Rizal, to Filemon Aguilar, a long-time mayor of Las Piñas and congressman, and Lydia Ampaya.

She spent her elementary years at the Muntinlupa Elementary School, where she graduated in 1962.

In 1966, she graduated high school from the Philippine Christian University.

She then obtained a degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at the University of the Philippines Diliman (UP Diliman) in 1970.

It is where in UP she met her husband, Senator Manny Villar.

Two years later, in 1972, she obtained a master's degree in Business Administration at the New York University.

She practiced as a financial analyst at the Philippine Shares Corporation and a professor at the Far Eastern University before marrying Villar in 1975.

After her marriage, she helped her husband in managing his business ventures and became the director and vice president of the Household Finance Corporation.

She later managed the Capitol Development Bank, where she served as its treasurer from 1989 to 1990 and its president from 1990 to 1998.

In 1992, she founded the Villar Foundation, where she is currently its managing director.

When Manny Villar became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1998, she became the chairwoman of the Congressional Spouses Foundation, serving until 2000.

She has a brother named Vergel Aguilar, who is the former mayor of Las Piñas.

The plunder complaint relates to an alleged fraudulent deal in 1998 with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

She was a member of the House of Representatives for the Lone District of Muntinlupa from 2001 to 2010 before winning a seat in the Senate in 2013, placing tenth.

Villar topped the Senate race with 25 million votes, the most votes in election history until it was surpassed by Robin Padilla in 2022, and was re-elected for a second term in the Senate and got first in the results of the 2019 elections.

In 2001, Villar ran as Representative of the Lone District of Las Piñas and won in a landslide victory.

When her husband became the Senate President in 2006, she became the president of the Senate Spouses Foundation, Inc., serving until December 2008.

Plunder charges were filed in 2008 against Villar, then a representative, and her husband, then-senator Manny Villar.

She served in that post until 2010.

She and her husband were cleared of the charges by the Office of the Ombudsman in 2010.

In 2013, Villar ran as senator under the ticket of his husband's rival in the 2010 presidential elections, President Benigno Aquino III and won, finishing in 10th place.

On July 10, 2014, Villar criticized the arrest of senators Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Jinggoy Estrada after the three were linked as the masterminds to the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam or Pork Barrel scandal.

On May 19, 2015, Villar was the richest senator in the Philippines with a 2014 net worth of ₱1,983,480,135.

On May 17, 2016, Villar's wealth increased by 76% according to government data.

In August 2016, Villar's son, Mark Villar, was appointed by newly elected president Rodrigo Duterte as the public works and highways secretary.

In October 2016, Villar backed President Duterte's Philippine Drug War, which has killed at least 20,000 Filipinos.

In November 2016, Villar voted against a resolution which sought to reject the Duterte-initiated burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

In 2017, she received the Most Distinguished Alumni award from the University of the Philippines Alumni Association.

In February 2017, Villar voted in favor of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act, which increased the inflation rate and cost of goods in the country.

Villar afterwards blamed "traders" for the negative effects of the law that she supported.

On the same month, after President Rodrigo Duterte announced his intention to withdraw a treaty with the United States, Villar followed suit by not supporting the resolution requiring Senate concurrence on treaty withdrawals.

On June 14, 2017, Villar urged the government to impose a ban in 'unli-rice'.

On December 13, 2017, Villar was unable to vote for the martial law extension in Mindanao, but senator Vicente Sotto III noted that she “would have voted yes.”

On March 6, 2018, Villar stated that she has 'no conflict of interest' in Boracay, where her company operates.

In June 2018, Villar rejected the possibility of same sex marriage in the Philippines.

On May 16, 2018, a local executive revealed that Villar's property firm was behind the levelling and destruction of mountains in Boracay.

On May 17, 2018, Villar did not support the resolution against the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno via a quo warranto petition.

On July 23, 2018, Villar announced that she "admired" President Rodrigo Duterte.

In October, she filed her certificate of candidacy for re-election in the 2019 senate elections.