Sanlakas said among its witnesses is Villar's former lawyer Restituto Mendoza.

Mendoza earlier gave ABS-CBN News an exclusive interview outlining what he claims is Villar's modus operandi in his real estate business.

The lawyer said the scheme involves bribing judges and government officials to swing decisions on problematic land cases in Villar's favor.

Mendoza earlier filed an illegal dismissal case against Villar.

Villar's lawyers have, in turn, filed a disbarment case against Mendoza as well as criminal charges--for blackmail, slander and extortion.

Sanlakas's plunder charges come in the heels of presidential candidate Joseph Estrada's revelation on Thursday of an alleged manipulation of the stock market by rival Villar back in 2007.

Former President Estrada claimed Villar earned billions in an irregular transaction involving the shares of his holding company Vista Land and Lifescapes Inc..

The camp of Villar, meanwhile, hits back at Estrada and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, saying the two are peddling lies.

Villar's lawyer, Nalen Rosero-Galang, challenged Estrada and Enrile to produce evidence that Villar manipulated the stock market.

Rosero-Galang said the public offering of the shares of stock of Vista Land & Lifescapes was done in compliance with the requirements of the Securities Regulation Code and the rules of the Philippine Stock Exchange.

error

It may bear and serve the Filipino nation well to investigate and know that Manny Villar may actually have broken through from Tondo-ragged accountant to billionaire-rich presidentiable by allowing himself to be used as a foreign investor’s dummy in the Philippine real estate business.

You see, the conduct of real estate business in the Philippines is made exclusive by law to Filipino citizens, necessarily because its affairs involve sensitive issues that affect territory, patrimony, and national security. Wasn’t that a debonair American who was smilingly visible every day at the offices of Crown Asia, Inc., way back before the Villars became political aspirants?

Unfortunately, sighting American presence at the Crown Asia, Inc. organization deteriorates to zero visibility in hot election weather, especially nowadays! As Manny Villar embarked on a political career, it naturally became strategically imperative to avoid flaks of damaging controversy about being economically beholden to foreign influence, especially from nationalist camps of the likes of then Senator Teofisto Guingona Jr. who was one among legislators instrumental in passing general law limiting conduct of real estate business in the Philippines to Filipinos only.

In fact, it was from 1997 to 1999 that the bespactacled, middle-aged, happy American investor (silent or express?) of Crown Asia, Inc. was last regularly observed at the 18th Floor of Cityland Herrera Tower. Most of us often have "humble," sometimes "rotten," beginnings; yet being transparent about such beginnings can do more good than harm. The key to the answer may reach as far back as times with SGV, or perhaps good Senator Manuel Villar may want to comment on this matter at this time?

A passage in Amado Guerrero’s (a.k.a. Joema Sison) “Philippine Society and Revolution” hitting the leadership of the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas needs noting:

“The bourgeois reactionary gang of the Lavas and Tarucs regarded as top item in its agenda of parliamentary struggle the question of turning the Communist Party through the Democratic Alliance into a mere adjunct of either the Nacionalista Party or the Liberal Party in the 1946 elections. It chose to put the Democratic Alliance on the side of the Nacionalista Party against the Liberal Party, which had only been recently a mere faction of the Nacionalista Party. There was no basic difference between the Liberal Party and its mother party.”