CHAPTER 11: MOVING ON

Former President Erap Estrada and Chavit Singson attend together a wedding ceremony.

After almost two decades, the main characters of the Estrada Impeachment appear to be back on good, speaking terms with each other. Erap and Chavit have since reconciled—at least from the way they are viewed in public.

More importantly, at least for their political careers, they continued to enjoy the trust of their constituencies.

Erap, who was eventually convicted for plunder during GMA’s administration, would soon benefit from presidential pardon. And from the looks of it, he takes pride the most in what he believes as his ultimate vindication: being elected as City Mayor of Manila in 2013. (Erap was re-elected in 2016 and is looking forward to running for a third and last term in 2019.) GMA herself was arrested and jailed—for electoral sabotage and, later, for plunder.

Prior to this, she ran in 2010 and won a seat in the Lower House of Philippine Congress, representing her home province of Pampanga. In her third term, on July 23, 2018, she was elected by her peers and rose to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She is back—just like Erap—at the highest levels of political power.

For his part, Chavit remained visible at the fringes, if not the center, of national consciousness—in politics, in business, and even in civic action. He sort of retired from politics in 2016 to focus, he said, on his business interests.

At any rate, he did run and win a seat in the Sangguniang Bayan of Narvacan, Ilocos Sur. He went on to become the National President of the Councilors’ League of the Philippines.

In early 2017, the Philippines hosted the 65th Miss Universe pageant. Chavit came forward to sponsor it, and spent at least $13 million (around P650 M) of his personal money to cover most, if not all, of the cost it entailed.

To those who wondered how audacious one can be in spending such amount of money, he assured them that he could afford it. And it was a way of giving back, he said.

There had been no shortage of information linking Chavit to riches, but what seemed to be unmitigated gallantry on his part could not but stoke curiosity. How deep, really, is his pocket?

His investments, according to reports, earn him—let’s correct that: net him—at least P120 M every month. The figure may not astound if ranged against those that other big dogs of Philippine business rake in; but surely it is not something that one may sneeze at either.

In a January 2017 report, Entrepreneur PH interviewed Chavit on why and how rich he was. Quoted below are part of that interview:

“My net revenues amount to about P120 M a month. There are a lot (of companies). I have many businesses that earn millions.

“The construction (business) I make billions; the transportation (business), I’m netting around P100 M a month; I’ve earned P1 B from that in previous years, just for transportation.”

In that same interview, Chavit mentioned that his relatively new ventures included a commercial airline that will fly domestic and international routes, a bank in Puerto Rico (Vigan Banco International) which recently opened branches in Los Angeles (California) and Mexico, and local branches of GO Sport,

one of Europe’s largest sporting goods chains.

When asked how many companies he owns, he said: “There are a lot. Maybe around a hundred. Some of them aren’t in my name.”

Outside of politics and business, he is also a big sports fan and enthusiast. He is a marks man himself, having won several shooting competitions in the Philippines and abroad.

He currently serves as President of the Philippine National Shooting Association. He is a boxing fan too. His association—as business and political adviser—with former world boxing champion and currently Senator Manny Pacquiao27, is widely known in the Philippines and other parts of the

world, especially in some major cities of the USA.

27 Manny Pacquiao holds the record of being the only 8-division (4 as lineal champion, also a record) title holder in all of professional boxing history. Given the many ways he has shown how good he is at what he does, readers may wonder what makes him tick, so to speak.

Chavit says his secret is in how he keeps his word.

“I am sincere. And lahat ng sasabihin ko… at kung magsalita ako kailangan totoo dahil yon ang kabilinbilinan ng aking Tatay (Everything that I will say…I need to speak the truth because that is what my Father told me)… na oras na masira ang credibility mo wala ng maniniwala sa yo (that in the event that I lose my credibility, nobody will ever believe me), kaya wag ka magsalita ng di mo magagawa (so do not say anything you cannot support with action). So yon ang palagi kong ginagawa (that’s what I always do), that’s the reason why in politics I always win by a landslide. Because I’m sincere to serve the people. At saka may isang salita lang ako. (And people have my word.)