MAGKASOSYO pa rin pala sa Wil Tower na itinayo sa Eugenio Lopez Drive, Quezon City, sa tapat ng audience entrance ng ABS-CBN, sina Willie Revillame at ex-Sen. Manny Villar, taliwas sa kumalat na balitang ibinenta na ng TV host ang shares sa may-ari ng Vista Land Corporation.
“Partnership kami, Wil Tower is Wil Tower, named after him. But the mall there is Vista Place,” paglilinaw ni Camille Villar, ang namamahala sa lahat ng malls na pag-aari ng Villar Group of Companies. “We can’t divulge the details, but in the condo, he’s a partner. The whole complex, he’s a partner because that was his property, that was his project, we did that together and we build that together, that’s why we’re partners.”
Nakakuwentuhan namin ang bunso at nag-iisang anak na babae ni dating Senador Manny at Senadora Cynthia Villar sa bagong bukas na Vista Mall All Shoppe Department Store na katabi lang ng Camella Homes sa Balanga, Bataan nitong nakaraang Martes.
Kuwento ni Camille, nililibot niya araw-araw ang mga mall na mina-manage niya kahit may mga competent staff naman silang tumitingin kapag hindi siya nakakapunta.
“Been busy with the malls and retail stores tulad ng Starmall, Vista Mall, All Shoppe, All Day Supermarket, All Home, All Toys and All Baby and Kids. So, ‘yun ‘yung pinagkaabalahan namin, puro shopping at pagkain ngayon. Well, with the help of my dad, this is what I’m managing – the retail group and the mall group,” masayang sabi ni Camille.
Magpapatayo rin sila ng Vista Malls sa iba’t ibang bahagi ng Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao.
“We’re catching up,” tugon sa tanong amin kung papantayan na nila ang ang Ayala, SM at Robinsons malls.
Ang unang mall na naitayo ng Villar Group of Companies ay ang Starmall sa Shaw Boulevard.
“Starmall used to have six malls for the longest time,” kuwento ni Camille. “After 2013 when my dad retired from politics, he came heavily in the retail and malls, from six (malls), now we have 17 malls, kabilang na ‘yung Vista Mall Bataan. We have in Sta. Rosa, we have in Taguig, we have in Sucat and many in Cavite or in the South. We have rin in Pampanga, meron din sa Cagayan de Oro, Cebu. Actually nag-merge na ang Vista Mall at Starmall and we’re building pa more.
“Kasi we have lots of land, so instead of just giving people the place to live, we wanted them to have entire community, a place to shop, a place for entertainment, a place to work, we also have call centers, office buildings that we are developing, condominiums, so we wanna be a full service real estate company.
“And siyempre, when you’re building malls, you begin to realize that a necessary complement of the mall are the things inside like the supermarket, department stores, ‘yung mga all home kaya nagsimula ‘yung retail. And we started in All Home, and then we realized that people needs supermarkets kaya nag-start ‘yung All Day and so far we’re very successful.
“Right now, we have 13 branches of All Home and we’re closing next year with 20, and with All Day we now have three and next year, we’ll probably close with 10. And we also launched All Toys, we have now four branches and we should be closing next year six for a total of 10.
“So lots of places to shop, ‘yun ang pinagkakaabalahan namin ngayon, puro shopping at pagkain ngayon,” kuwento pa ng bunsong Villar.
Magkatulong si Camille at ang daddy niya sa pagma-manage ng retail at mall group, ang kuya naman niya ang bahala sa real estate nila samantalang ang kanyang isa pang kuya ay secretary ngayon ng Department of Public Works and Highways.
Ipinagmamalaki ni Camille ang kanilang movie houses sa lahat ng Vista Malls na ka-level daw ng Ayala sa Glorietta at dalawa lang daw ang sinehang may 4D, isa sa The Fort at ‘yung sa Vista Mall Sucat.
“State of the art lahat ang movie houses namin, you can check,” aniya.
Binusisi tuloy namin ang mga sinehan sa Vista Mall Balanga at totoo nga, magaganda ang mga upuan at ‘yung VIP Cinema 1 ay parang napakasarap na gawing tulugan dahil 350 lang ang seating capacity na puro lazy boy chairs.
Napakalamig ng mall at napakalinis at napakabango ng banyo na sabi ng assistant ni Camille na si Avic Amarillo, “’Yan ang trademark ng Vista Malls, sobrang maginaw.”
May dalawa at tatlong nanonood nang pasukin namin ang sinehan dahil patay na oras ang 1:00 PM, kaya nagtanong kami kay Avic kung hindi ba aksaya sa kuryente ito, at sinabi na sa ilang sinehan sa Metro Manila ay hindi na itinutuloy ang screening kapag hindi umabot ng 8 katao ang manonood.
“Nagbayad po sila kaya kailangang ituloy maski na iisang tao lang ang nanonood,” sagot ni Avic.
Sana lahat ng sinehan ay ganito ang patakaran dahil hindi naman kasalanan ng nag-iisang nagbayad kung walang ibang manonood.
Teka, iiwan na ba ni Camille ang showbiz? Matatandaan na minsan din niyang nasubukang maging TV host.
“I did kasi hosting as an experience, pero after a while, I had the opportunity to study abroad and take my masters which is a long time dream of mine, so, I got accepted so I had to go and leave then.
“When I came back, parang I wanted to put that to use. So, parang I’m happy where I am, di ba? You know, practicing what I learned, and siyempre, my family, they’ve always been in business so I thought it was the natural ending for me. So, yeah, being back to where I belong,” esplika ng dalaga.
So, goodbye showbiz na?
“Yeah, for now. I mean, never say never but for now, I’m really where I want to be. I have my friends there and I just watch them do their thing, right? It’s so much fun and I still see everyone that I used to work with, you know, they weren’t just people that I’ve worked with, they’ve become really, really good friends of mine.”
Bakit hindi subukan nina Camille na mag-produce rin ng pelikula, tutal marami silang kakilala sa showbiz?
“Ang dami na naming inaaral, actually, marunong lang kaming gumawa ng bahay, napasok na namin ‘yung kape, ‘yung shopping, all the stuff para hindi na namin aaralin. Marami nang sobrang galing sa entertainment kaya hindi na,” katwiran sa amin.
Oo nga naman, magtayo na lang sila ng sinehan along Lopez Drive na malapit sa ABS-CBN at tiyak na patok ‘yun.
(REGGEE BONOAN)
