Lessons from Mr. “Sipag at Tiyaga.”

“The best investment on earth is earth.” — Louis Glickman

“Sipag at Tiyaga” is not only a famous campaign tag line for former Senate President Manuel B. Villar Jr.; it is also a distinction of his success. He straddles both the worlds of business and politics and is one of the few who managed to excel in both.

At a very young age, Manny — as he is affectionately called — was exposed to entrepreneurship by helping his mother sell fish in the market. By helping her mom sell fish, he was able to earn enough to pay for his school needs. He was doing the job to help her mom save by not hiring a helper to carry the loads and help sell shrimp and fish. The chaos of Divisoria environment molded the billionaire that we now know. He was exposed on how the Chinese businessmen do business but it’s his mother that greatly influenced him.

He was a working student at the University of the Philippines, the premier institution of higher learning in the country, where he obtained his undergraduate and master’s degree in business administration and accountancy. By then, he was also putting in long hours as fish and shrimp trader, where the action started during the ungodly hours of the morning when the catch lands on the market. After graduation, he tried his hand as an accountant at the country’s biggest accounting firm, Sycip, Gorres and Velayo (SGV). He resigned shortly though to venture on his own seafood delivery business.

He worked briefly as a financial analyst at the Private Development Corporation of the Philippines, where his job was to sell World Bank loans, despite the attractive rates of which there were no takers. Convinced that he could make it on his own again, he quit his job and promptly availed of one of the loans. So, with an initial capital of P10,000 in 1975, Villar purchased two reconditioned trucks and started his sand-and-gravel business in Las Piñas. It is here while delivering construction materials to big developers that Manny Villar came up with the idea of selling house and lot packages when the convention then was for homeowners to buy lots and build on them. Through hard work and persistence, he soon became the housing industry leader, and the biggest homebuilder in Southeast Asia, having built more than 100,000 houses for the poor and middle-class Filipino families. He then initiated mass housing projects to achieve economies of scale. His various innovations practically created the country’s mass housing industry. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism calls him “the dean of the (Philippine) real estate industry.”

In 1992, he decided to make a go in politics, with a stunning political debut in 1992. He won with the most overwhelming mandate among congressmen in Metro Manila and promptly applied his economic and managerial expertise as a key member of the House’s economic team, marshalling in economic reform measures of the Ramos Administration such as the New Foreign Investments Act and the restructuring of the Central Bank of the Philippines. By the end of his second term of office, Villar had already proven beyond doubt his capacity for excellence as a true Filipino entrepreneur and a brilliant public servant who can get things done.

As one of the leading entrepreneurs in the country, he championed the cause of small and medium-sized enterprises. He authored and passed into law the landmark New Magna Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises (RA 8289). He initiated creative legislation such as establishment of the Small and Medium Enterprises Stock Exchange and Business One-Stop-Shop centers, the latter he immediately implemented in Las Piñas City with the help of local officials. It was no surprise then to those in the know when he gained the remarkable acclaim of 171 of 220 congressmen as the Speaker of the 11th Congress of the House of Representatives.

In a time when the country is slowly recovering from a host of economic and political crises, the election of the ‘brown taipan’ at the helm of Congress signaled a watershed event in the Philippine political history. The rise of Manny Villar ushered in a new consensus of leadership based on managerial skills and not simply on oratory and rhetoric.

In 2001, despite being a relative newcomer in national politics, Manny Villar posted one of the most impressive showings in the national polls as a Senator of the Republic. On his first day in office, he filed 204 bills covering a comprehensive legislative program of action — the first among neophyte senators and the third highest filer among the senators of the 12th Congress of the Philippines. After being elected by his colleagues, he assumed the position of Senate President Pro-Tempore, the second to the highest post in the higher Chamber of Congress. In July 2006, Villar became the Senate President, making him the first post-World War II public official to head both the House of Representatives and the Senate. He later ran as president in the 2010 presidential elections under the Nacionalista Party, with senator Loren Legarda as his running mate. After having lost the Presidential elections to Noynoy Aquino, Villar devoted his time to helping his children grow the family business, and to the foundation that he runs with his wife. The foundation, he said, helps the poor get access to housing and livelihood

The boy who grew up in modest beginnings in the slums of Moriones, Tondo – and rose to become the first full-blooded Filipino to make it to the Forbes Magazine's list of the world's billionaires – shared his experiences, as he predicated his story on the day he realized he lost the 2010 Presidential Elections. "On the same day that I conceded to then President-elect Benigno Aquino, I immediately called my senior officers to a meeting to chart the growth path and review the company’s strategies," he mused. "After studying the business landscape, I realized that our company is placed in a unique position, as our properties covered 60 cities and municipalities all over the country, something that no other developer has achieved." Banking on this advantage, he embarked on an aggressive move of expanding their presence nationwide. "Today, Vista Land covers 92 cities and municipalities and we shall hit more than a hundred by year-end," he declared.

Riding on the country’s bright economic prospects, the former Senate President plans to launch more business process outsourcing buildings and shopping malls both through Starmalls, Inc. and Vista Malls. Having already embarked on a wave of accelerated expansion – as if to make up for the lost time of 16 years that he spent in politics – his venture in the retail market is marked with unprecedented growth. His target was to have 100 commercial centers upon his 10th year in retailing, which is 2021; he is planning to spend P15 billion in the next five years to grow Vista Malls and also Star Malls, a listed firm that took over the then-ailing Manuela malls of his wife’s family in 2011. His All-Value Holdings Corporation (which he hopes to list) will expand his "All Day" convenience stores to more than 150 outlets by the end of 2015; he also hired French executives from Carrefour to expand his All Day supermarkets. He also wants to grow his All-Shoppe department stores.

"The fundamentals of the business were still there when I rejoined (the business). I haven't lost it. I'm more convinced I should really be a businessman, to help the country... at least dito, kontrolado mo ang area mo, kung ano magagawa mo, mas mako-control mo ang destiny mo. Unlike in politics, hindi masyado..." ("At least here, you control your area, whatever you can do, you are in a better position to control your destiny. Unlike in politics, not so much"), he said. "I was always asked by my children why I would enter into businesses where there are already very dominant players," he said, " but I am always reminded about the success story of Henry Sy, my favorite business tycoon." He relates the story of Henry Sy when he bought an ailing thrift bank called the Acme Savings Bank and changed the name to Banco de Oro; at that time, banking was already peppered by a lot of dominant giants. "Today, Banco de Oro is the country's biggest bank," he said. "This goes to show that a big company today can be nothing tomorrow; conversely, a small player today can become a big player soon."

While Manny Villar was well-known as a renowned legislator for 16 years – having been a three-term Congressman, later becoming Speaker of the House of Representatives; was thereafter elected Senator, then Senate President, before trying his luck as a viable presidential contender – he is, first and foremost, a dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur. And while he remains optimistic about the economy, he predicted that the next President of the Philippines will face a much difficult job, than what the incumbent President faced in 2010. He mentioned five crucial issues that will be very, very difficult to solve: (1) the unmitigated drug problem; (2) the worsening peace and order situation; (3) the unchecked insurgency in the countryside; (4) the rising tensions in the West Philippine Sea; and (5) the predicated passage of a watered-down Bangsamoro Basic Law. He said that the country needs a leader who can negotiate in a position of strength; not of weakness. And when asked who among the presidential aspirants he would endorse, he kept mum, saying, "all of them have their strengths and weaknesses."

“At the age of 72, people always ask me when will I ever retire," he said. "I always tell them that I don't think I will ever retire. I love what I'm doing. I feel I’ve only just begun. I am red hot. I don’t feel my age,” he quipped.