Is Mark Villar a mama’s boy?

“Keep going. Grind for what you want. Pray. Listen to your mama.”

—Gunna

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

MANY people are wondering why it was Senator Cynthia Villar who took the bullet for her son, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Mark Villar, in the monumental Iloilo-Guimaras-Negros-Cebu Link Bridge fiasco.

Instead of bravely facing the Ilonggos, especially the forlorn residents of Guimaras hoodwinked by Secretary Villar and many other officials in the Duterte administration, and explaining to them why the $1 billion project has been reportedly scrapped, it was Mommy Cynthia who announced that the dream bridge project “was not a priority” and may no longer be built as promised under this administration.

Did Secretary Villar ask Mommy Cynthia to speak on his behalf about the doomed bridge project so that Mommy Cynthia would be the one to absorb the Ilonggos’ wrath?

Did Mommy Cynthia, anticipating a terrible backlash from the Ilonggos for her beloved son for the unceremonious ditching of the mammoth project advertised to be part of the Duterte Administration's "Build, Build, Build" Program, take it upon herself to deliver the bad news to the Ilonggos recently to shield beloved son Mark?

No one can question a mother’s love for any son or daughter, but the Villar mother and son pantomime in the bridge project imbroglio is so unique it made so many heads turn.

Did beloved son Mark designate Mommy Cynthia to be the DPWH’s spokesperson only for this specific but very sensitive issue?

 

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For his part, Secretary Villar knew the Ilonggos would be hurt; he knew that he and other toadies in this administration had made piles of promises in the past three years about the bridge network aimed to provide increased inter-connectivity in the provinces of Western and Central Visayas and to stimulate economic activity in the region and help in the decongestion of Metro Manila in the process only to break their hearts.

The issue of abandonment of this very important bridge project won’t be easily accepted and forgotten by the Ilonggos.

There will be political repercussions.

Whoever delivered the bad news would surely earn the ire of the Ilonggos.

For the past three years, the Ilonggos have been fed with false fantasies and half truths about the “soon to be constructed Iloilo-Guimaras-Negros bridge.”

 

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Was it okay for beloved son Mark to expose Mommy Cynthia to public indignation?  

“I asked the DPWH (Department of Public Works and highways) and they said it’s not a priority of the [present] administration because the economic return is not as big as others,” Mommy Cynthia told the Ilonggos last week.

“Iloilo is a progressive province but Guimaras is not. So they prefer other projects with big economic impact.”

As a result, Mommy Cynthia, for acting like a “good mother”, took the first fusillade from Guimaras Vice Governor John Edward Gando, who reportedly called her mea culpa about the island province as “unfounded and uncalled for.”

More local officials and irate residents, terribly disappointed by the show of bad faith and double-dealing by DPWH and National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), among other agencies involved in the debacle, are expected to come out in the firing line with blazing guns.

Mommy Cynthia probably didn’t realize her statement about Guimaras supposedly as being not a progressive island province would caught a hailstorm of protest both from the local officials and the residents.

Guimarasnons must’ve felt Mommy Cynthia added insult to their injury.

Look what you’ve done, beloved son Mark.

 

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RISK FOR HEART ATTACK. Our pulse at rest is a key indicator for heart health. Sixty to 70 beats per minute is normal, but a new study finds that for every 10 beats faster per minute, a woman's risk for heart attack increases by 18 percent.

TREATING EMOTIONAL PAIN. Let us think of physical and emotional pain as two sides of the same coin. "MRI scans reveal that the brain regions that light up when you stub your toe are the same ones activated when you feel socially rejected," says Nathan DeWall, Ph.D., who conducted a study on treating emotional pain.

NO HEALTH RISK in full-body scans at the airport. It would take 100 scans over the course of a year for us to receive what's considered a "negligible individual dose," the American College of Radiology reports. In fact, we're exposed to more naturally occurring radiation when flying cross-country, thanks to our proximity to outer space.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)