Mark Villar switches camps. Minutes later, family’s troubled firms make their move.

Nico Villarete/Rappler

It’s been a busy afternoon for the Villars, as Mark crosses to the Senate majority, Camille stays, and three of the family's suspended firms move to finally release their long-overdue financial statements

AT A GLANCE

• Senator Mark Villar switched to the majority in the Senate, gaining the public works committee chairmanship, while his sister remained in the minority, allowing the Villar family to maintain influence in both political camps.
• Shortly after Villar's political maneuver, three companies under the Villar umbrella announced plans to release their overdue audited financial statements, raising speculation about their potential return to trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange after months of suspension.
• The Villar family's financial troubles are significant, with multiple companies facing scrutiny and legal issues, including a major controversy involving Villar Land Holdings, which reported inflated asset values and is under investigation for various violations.

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A Villar switches political camps, and seemingly on cue, parts of the family’s battered business empire stir to life. 

On Thursday, October 8 – amid an extended lunch break in Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, and with the Senate about to go on a month-long legislative recess – there was apparently just enough time for Senator Mark Villar to switch to the majority and promptly snag the powerful public works committee chairmanship and a seat in the Commission on Appointments. His sister, Senator Camille Villar, stayed put in the minority, leaving the family a foot in both camps.

Minutes later came the corporate disclosures. Between 2:12 pm and 3:09 pm, three companies under the Villar family’s corporate umbrella announced moves that could bring them closer to resuming trading on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), following months of suspension and controversy.

Talk about timing.

In separate, successive PSE disclosures, Vista Land & Lifescapes (VLL), Vistamalls (STR), and VistaREIT (VREIT) announced that their boards had approved the release of their long-overdue audited financial statements for 2025.

Coming just minutes after news of Villar’s flip in the Senate broke, the filings were enough to set tongues wagging in stock market analyst circles, with speculation about the family’s political maneuvering and whether its suspended companies might finally be inching toward a return to stock market trading.

But the three companies are only part of a bigger mess nagging at the Villars. In all, six of the family’s listed companies have been pushed out of stock market trading after repeatedly missing financial reporting deadlines. First came their overdue 2025 annual reports, then their Q1 2026 financial statements, followed by their Q2 reports. For months, investors have been left holding shares they cannot sell.

Thursday’s announcements are also far from enough to get the stocks trading again. The three companies have merely authorized the release of their 2025 audited statements, which have yet to be published on the exchange. There’s no word on their overdue quarterly reports either.

And that’s just three of the six. AllHome (HOME), AllDay Marts (ALLDY), and, most notably, Villar Land Holdings (VLC) made no similar announcements.

Trillion-peso controversy

The last of these is particularly conspicuous. Villar Land Holdings is at the center of the family’s biggest financial controversy, after initially reporting a staggering P1.3 trillion in assets for 2024, driven by an unbelievable revaluation of its properties in Villar City.

Its subsequently audited statements showed assets of only P35.7 billion, a fraction of the earlier figure.

Since then, it has been one controversy after another for the Villar family. Among their mounting troubles:

• In August 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined Villar Land and its directors and officers P12 million over reporting violations. Months later, it revoked property appraiser E-Value Phils.’ accreditation and fined it P1 million over unreliable valuations.
• In January 2026, the SEC filed a criminal complaint against Villar Land, family members, and related firms over alleged market manipulation, insider trading, and misleading disclosures. The Villars have denied wrongdoing and sought its dismissal.
• In September, the Ombudsman filed graft and administrative complaints against the Villar family over its PrimeWater contracts with local water districts. In San Jose del Monte, Bulacan, a water crisis affecting over 47,000 households prompted a state of calamity and the city government’s takeover of PrimeWater’s operations, with Metro Pacific Water brought in as interim operator.
• Before trading was suspended, Villar Land shares last traded at P448 as of May 29, a drop off the cliff from their 52-week high of P2,300.

Francis Lim, the man tasked with keeping watch over the country’s corporations, has made clear that even the most powerful families are not untouchable.

“If you deserve to be sued, we will sue you,” the SEC chairman said in July, referring to the case against the Villars. The SEC’s criminal complaint remains under preliminary investigation at the Department of Justice.

Time will tell whether Mark Villar’s moves will be enough to build back the fallen family’s political and financial capital. – Rappler.com