Manny Villar

Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar Jr. (born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino

businessman and former politician.

Manuel Villar was born on December 13, 1949, in Tondo, an impoverished and densely populated district of Manila.

He was the second-born of the nine children of his parents in a poor family.

His father, Manuel "Maning" Montalban Villar Sr., was a government employee from Cabatuan, Iloilo who worked as an inspector for the Bureau of Fisheries.

His mother, Curita "Curing" Bamba, was a seafood vendor from a poor family in Orani, Bataan.

The family lived in a small rented apartment in a run down slum area.

Villar's father was eventually granted a year-long scholarship for higher education in the United States, which led to a job promotion to a director position in the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources upon his return.

Due to cramped conditions in Tondo, Villar's father obtained a ₱16,000 loan from the Government Service Insurance System, payable in 20 to 25 years, to build a home in San Rafael Village, Navotas.

As a child, Villar initially attended Isabelo delos Reyes Elementary School, a nearby public school in Tondo.

He also assisted his mother in selling shrimp and fish at the Divisoria Public Market, as early as age six, in order to help earn the money to support his siblings and himself to school.

However, accompanying his mother interfered with his education and he was forced to drop out from school during Grade 1.

He was then enrolled at Tondo Parochial School (later renamed Holy Child Catholic School), a private school in Tondo run by priests, to complete his elementary education.

Villar finished his high school education at the Mapúa Institute of Technology in Santa Cruz, adjacent to Tondo.

He attended the University of the Philippines Diliman and earned his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1970.

He returned to the same school to earn his master's degree in business administration in 1973.

He later characterized himself as being impatient with formal schooling, and eager to start working and go into business.

After obtaining his bachelor's degree, Villar began his professional career working as an accountant for Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co. (SGV & Co).

He resigned from SGV & Co. to start his first business, delivering seafood in Makati.

However, when his largest customer was unable to pay him, he negotiated a debt restructuring of sorts, selling discounted meal tickets to office workers in exchange for receivables.

He then worked briefly as a financial analyst for the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines, where his job was to sell World Bank loans.

Wanting to start a business of his own again, he quit his job and availed of one of the loans, which offered attractive rates.

In 1975, with an initial capital of ₱10,000, Villar purchased two reconditioned trucks and started a business delivering sand and gravel for construction companies in Las Piñas.

This eventually segued into building houses, as Villar took out a seven-year loan from a rural bank offering low interest rates.

He initiated mass housing projects through economies of scale, utilizing the cost advantages of developing a large-scale project in order to bring down housing prices.

The number of homes built by Villar's companies totaled to over 200,000 units.

In the 1980s, Villar established Prime Water to operate and maintain water distribution systems throughout the country.

It counts a 25-year partnership with the municipality of Daraga to deliver bulk water, a 25-year joint venture agreement with Lingayen Water District in Pangasinan, and a 25-year joint agreement with the Leyte Metropolitan Water District among its 30 water projects with local water districts.

In 1984, he founded Golden Haven Memorial Park, a chain of cemeteries in the Philippines, started with its first branch in Las Piñas and expanded in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Bulacan, and Iloilo.

Before his stint in the senate, he represented the district of Las Piñas–Muntinlupa from 1992 to 1998, and Las Piñas's at-large district from 1998 to 2001.

He also became the speaker of the House of Representatives from 1998 to 2000; in this term, he presided over the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada.

He previously served as senator from 2001 to 2013 and as the President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2006 to 2008.

He ran for president in the 2010 presidential elections under the Nacionalista Party, but lost to Benigno Aquino III.

The Commission on Audit flagged Prime Water's operations in Guagua, Pampanga due to high levels of arsenic in the commission's 2018 annual report.

The company produces over 170 million liters of treated water daily, supplied by more than 250 deep wells and surface water resources, and is directly involved in delivering water to more than 150,000 households across the Philippines.

Now under the Villar Group of Companies, the water utility firm is led by their eldest son, Paolo.

From 2019 to 2022, Forbes magazine named Villar as the richest individual in the Philippines, with an estimated net worth of $11.0 billion.

Villar was born to a poor family in Tondo, an impoverished and densely populated district of Manila.

After graduating from the University of the Philippines, he worked as an accountant and financial analyst, then launched a highly successful business in real estate.

Villar's companies have built over 200,000 homes, and his business career made him the wealthiest person in the Philippines.