Who’s Mark Villar?/The Goldilocks story

Incoming President Rodrigo Duterte who surprised many people when he launched his candidacy soon after he said he was not running, recently made another surprise move when he named Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar as Secretary of Public Works and Highways.

As quickly as Mark Villar’s appointment was announced came some remarks that the public works head should be an engineer, not a marketing man.

But Duterte immediately came to his defense. He said he wanted Villar at the post because he needs a “good organizational man there.”

Villar is aware of the challenges of heading the department, which had been perceived to be one of the most vulnerable to corruption among government agencies, being the department responsible for the planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure, especially the national highways, bridges, flood control, and water resources development system.

Villar agrees that appointments to the DPWH require  not only competence but a high degree of integrity and honesty.

At 37, he may be one of the youngest members of the Duterte Cabinet. He is no stranger to legislative work as he is a third-term congressman of the lone district of Las Piñas City. As a legislator, he served as chair of the committee on trade and industry, and vice chair of the committees on overseas workers affairs, science and technology and labor and employment.

He has a bachelor’s degree in economics, political science and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Besides those degrees, he is well equipped to carry the important job. Prior to his stint as an elected public servant, he served as president of Crown Asia Corp. The firm is a member of the Vista Land group, which has more than three decades of experience in master-planning entire communities as well as commercial centers.

He possesses expertise and a high degree of honesty. This is in addition to his possession of core values of hard work and perseverance instilled in him by his parents, former Senator Manny Villar, and incumbent senator Cynthia Villar.

Critics are already citing conflict of interest because he is the son of former Sen. Manny Villar, who heads one of the country’s biggest real estate companies, with numerous housing and commercial projects throughout the country.  Mark’s supporters say that citing the location of these projects along public roads is “a lame argument for a conflict-of interest issue.”

Duterte said he would have Mark draw a map showing where his family’s real estate developments are to “avoid making a road or alley there.”

Actually accepting the DPWH portfolio presents a huge sacrifice for Mark and his family’s business. It means the Villar-led Vista Land Lifescapes, which in the past expressed interest in participating in biddings for DPWH projects, including those under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program, may no longer do so.

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Every Filipino probably has a Goldilocks story. Just this month, the company celebrated 50 years of being the country’s most well-loved bakeshop and practically everyone has been through its doors, savoring and enjoying one or two favorite dishes. Goldilocks had become a family tradition and the adults of today 565555were most likely introduced to their first Goldilocks cake or lumpiang sariwa by their parents. Now it is their turn to bring their own kids to give them that sense of family, of tradition, of a shared love for time spent together.

My long-time friend Marie, now 40, shared this with me recently and it really did strike a chord. The details may be different from my own but it seems the Goldilocks experience is also something many of us share.

Marie’s storehouse of memories features her family’s excursions to Goldilocks after their buying sprees  at places like COD in Cubao and shoes at the Marikina Shoe Expo, also in Cubao.  Right after, they crossed the street to what was then the Rustan’s complex to make their way to the Goldilocks foodshop. For this place, Marie’s memories are both clear and delicious.

The feast started with sotanghon. Though she cooks now, Marie cannot really remember what went into the sotanghon then but she does remember with fondness how she always checked if there were enough strips of scrambled egg on her pile of pancit. She explains, “I liked looking at the sotanghon and all the colors that were there. For that brief moment, it was just me and my noodles. My parents would always just leave me be but also maybe they were too focused on their own stuff.”

Her parents loved the lumpiang sariwa. When Marie was already entering Grade 6, she told herself that she’d give it a try since she was almost a teen anyway. That’s when the relationship with a new favorite started. She found the way the sauce surrounding the slightly yellow, soft, thin skin of the lumpia to be quite a sight and liked the idea of seeing the small peanut bits sprinkled on it. The filling, well, the filling was just joy for her in every bite.

To gulp all of this down, she usually relied on some sago’t gulaman, watching the play of colors inside the tall glass before swirling everything with the straw  to mix things up. Next came the halo-halo or a slice of sans rival or chocolate cake. Her younger sister loved sans rival and her mom and dad shared some chocolate cake. The meal was finally over for Marie when, after having scooped up the last big bits of sliced banana , kaong, and  she could gulp the last of the halo-halo down with the smallest bits of ube, leche flan,milk, pinipig, and everything else all mixed up to form one delightful mixture.

Marie has her own kids now and she shares with them that memory of what Goldilocks was for her. How does she do this? Bringing them to Goldilocks herself! That Rustan’s branch is gone (because that complex in Cubao is gone as well) so she now goes to other places where there’s a Goldilocks bakeshop. There’s that one in Ali Mall, and whenever she passes by the Quezon Avenue area, there’s that one in the corner of Quezon Avenue and Scout Borromeo.

Perhaps one of the best things for Marie is the fact that with the years that have passed, she now has so many more branches to choose from! Her kids have their own schedules to keep and she treasures each and every minute she has with her brood and her husband. Bringing them to a Goldilocks is a must and with Goldilocks celebrating 50 years, she looks forward to the time when her kids will bring their own kids there. Hopefully, she can tag  along as the lola looking forward to her sotanghon, lumpiang sariwa and halo-halo.

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