Senator Cynthia Villar, the matriarch of the Villar clan, chooses not to hold grudges or seek retribution, firmly adhering to the principle of “karma” — the belief that one’s actions inevitably come full circle.

This amid the allegations of social media detractors that the woman senator is a land grabber, has a problem with her temper, and looks down on the poor, among other not-so-savory descriptions.

Villar, who visited the DAILY TRIBUNE office in Makati City recently for a roundtable discussion, explained what (really) transpired inside the Our Lady of Fatima church in Philamlife Village in Las Piñas City where she and a congressional rival had a seeming confrontation last month in a well-circulated video.

“I approached them and calmly said, ‘Since you’re already badmouthing my family, let’s stop pretending. Don’t come near me anymore. You stay there and I’ll stay here. If you’re mad at me, you stay there and we’ll stay here. Let’s just keep quiet. Then they made up a story,” she narrated.

Villar was also seen in another viral video seemingly losing her calm and allegedly pinching a coordinator during a distribution of relief goods for Las Piñas residents after floods hit in the aftermath of typhoon “Carina” last July.

Villar denied hurting the person in the video, quipping, “I could not pinch him since he is a man.”

Flooding concern

Villar also maintained that her family-owned real estate business, Camella Homes, was not involved in land-grabbing as alleged by her detractors. Land that is being tilled and occupied by farmers is not allowed to be taken over as “no one will buy houses and lots that are situated in farmlands,” she said.

Moreover, Villar debunked claims that her family’s business has tax liabilities in the Las Piñas City Treasurer’s Office, saying that when she found out about the allegation, she immediately called up her accountant and set a meeting with the city treasurer who told her they had no tax liabilities.

She said her focus is on serving the people of Las Piñas City if she secures a seat in the House of Representatives in next year’s elections. Villar’s term as a senator ends next year.

“My main concern is flooding. I (really) take care of our Las Piñas-Parañaque wetland involving four rivers (the Las Piñas, Parañaque, Zapote and Bacoor). They are contiguous and if we do not take care of that we will submerge in floodwaters, and that’s the reason I am not in favor of reclamation,” she said.

She said if the reclamation in Manila Bay will push through, which her opponent in the elections is pushing, flood waters from upper Cavite will inundate Las Piñas.

“In 2015, former Public Works and Highways Secretary Rogelio ‘Babes’ Singson warned me about the potential consequences if I allowed the reclamation project,” Villar said. “He told me that up to six meters of floodwater — equivalent to the height of a three-story building — could submerge Las Piñas. This is similar to what happened in Marikina City during typhoon Ondoy.”

Turning waste into resources

Villar said that she led the construction of the 40-kilometer River Drive, which includes alleys, while initiating livelihood programs for Las Piñas residents by turning waste into resources. The project currently has 89 composters producing organic fertilizer out of kitchen and garden waste.

“The 89 composters can process kitchen waste from 89,000 households, producing up to one ton of organic fertilizer. As a result, fertilizer in Las Piñas is now free of charge. This success led to my securing the chairmanship of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Many of the Department of Agriculture’s programs were modeled after those implemented in Las Piñas,” she said.

“It is said that 35 percent of the soil in the country is degraded, based on findings of the United Nations Committee on Food and Agriculture. To resolve that, the experts advised us to compost all our waste and bring it back to the soil. Fifty percent of Las Piñas waste is kitchen and garden waste, 15 percent is plastic, and 15 percent is paper. All of these are processed, saving P300 million a year,” she noted.

Aside from that, Villar said she spearheaded the relocation of about 4,000 households living beside the rivers to Naic, Cavite, where they were given P20,000 per family and land titles from the National Housing Authority.

“I don’t want these families to be oppressed because Manny (Villar, her husband) and I were born poor. We are just lucky. Because if we oppress other people, we will lose our luck. That’s karma. That’s why I am very thankful for what God has given us,” the senator said.

Also, Villar protects the Las Piñas-Parañaque wetland, the home of migratory birds, which in 2013 was listed in the Ramsar List as one of the Most Important Wetlands in the world, along with the Tubbataha Reef, Olango Reef, Palawan Underground River, Agusan Marsh, Naujan Lake, Negros Wetland and Sasmuan Wetlands.