Las Piñas councilor faces daunting task

Incumbent Las Piñas Councilor Mark Anthony Santos announced on Wednesday that he is ready to face Senator Cynthia Villar for the lone congressional seat of the city as the lawmaker will end her term on 30 June 2025.

The District 1 councilor stressed that while he is facing a huge battle, he will not back down even of his opponent is the richest individual and politician in the entire country.

Santos — the former chief of staff of the late Las Piñas Mayor Vergel Aguilar — is a seventh term city councilor and an advocate of socialized housing and in-city relation in support of the Marcos administration’s housing projects nationwide.

He has earned a wealth of experience as an elected minority leader and main author of a resolution allocating P85 million budget for land acquisition for informal settlers.

The councilor is also the author of the 2023 council resolution that sought to collect delinquent real property taxes amounting to P213.55 million to the five companies owned or managed by the Villar.

According to Santos, the Villar group of companies still owes the city government more than P70 million in taxes and penalties.

However, Villar claimed that there were numerous errors covering the names of the taxpayers, the estimated market value on the real property that is being taxed, the taxes levied on Brittany Corp.

She also assured that they will be more than willing to settle their obligations.

In 2001, the 74-year-old Villar won as representative of Las Piñas, where she completed three terms or nine years of service until 2010. In the 2013 midterm elections, Villar run and won as senator. In the 2019 national elections, Villar run and won anew as senator.