Camille Aguilar Villar

In my over 50 years of journalism, I had one of my best interviews, for two hours, with a tycoon politician, Camille Aguilar Villar, yesterday.

- TONY LOPEZ

Camille is my No. 1 candidate for senator in the May 12 elections. For these reasons: youth, beauty, brains, heart and experience — in public service and in building a business from scratch into a multibillion enterprise like the P27-billion AllHoldings retail and commercial arm of the Villar Group, today headed by the country's richest Filipino, Manuel B. Villar Jr.

Youth. Camille is 40, the youngest of the 65 or so senatorial candidates. This is a batch where most of the candidates are senior citizens. The next youngest, re-electionist Manny Pacquiao, is 46. Bam Aquino is 47, and Abby Binay, 49. Yet, the senatorial frontrunners are all past 50 — Ewin Tulfo, 61; Bong Go, 51; Tito Sotto, 76; Ben Tulfo, 70; Bong Revilla, 58; Imee Marcos, 69; Ping Lacson, 76; Willie Revillame, 64; Pia Cayetano, 60.

This is a country founded and built by people in their late 20s and 30s. Emilio Aguinaldo was 29 when he became president. Rizal was a martyr at 35. Jesus Christ was 33 at Golgotha.

(I am a senior citizen.) Senior citizens, those above 60, are only 14 percent or 16 million of this country's population of 120 million and just nine million out of 66 million voters. Seniors have the benefit of, presumably, wisdom and experience. But the young have dynamism, an innovative mind and boldness (some call it recklessness) in decision-making and in seeking the unconventional to solve age-old problems of hunger, poverty, income inequality.