Monday, May 21, 2007

It's a miracle! Priest beats Bong Pineda's wife and Gov. Mark Lapid in Pampanga!


Fr. Ed Panlilio, a Catholic priest, was proclaimed as the 23rd governor of Pampanga. Fr. Ed, who had no running mate, won with 219,706 votes over his closest rival, Lilia Pineda, who got 218,559 votes. In third place was Gov. Mark Lapid, who had 210,875 votes. Fr. Ed had no running mate and lacked the personal resources to launch a gubernatorial campaign. Nobody outside Pampanga ever heard of him. The mass media, e.g., TV and radio, did not cover him nor his campaign. To people outside the province of Pampanga, only two personalities were battling it out for the position.

Fr. Ed was parish priest of Betis in Guagua, when he decided to go on leave and run for governor with a crusade for transparent and good governance based on Christian values. His leave application has not been approved by the Archbishop of San Fernando Paciano Aniceto. However, the archbishop had issued a couple of pastoral letters which Fr. Ed's supporters had perceived as being supportive of his candidacy. His opponents, Lilia Pineda, is the wife of Rodolfo "Bong" Pineda, who is tagged as a big-time gambling lord, while Gov. Mark Lapid faces graft and other charges on allegations of anomalies in sand quarrying fees and barangay projects. Both Pineda and Lapid are in the good graces of the Arroyo government.


From what I have gathered, Fr. Ed's battlecry during the campaign was just two sentences: Stop jueteng! Stop illegal quarrying!


Fr. Ed's win has been described as phenomenal.
I call it
"Heavenly".
Indeed, there is light at the end of the tunnel
of Philippine politics.


Good luck Fr. Ed!
May you remain steadfast
in your advocacy and efforts
for good governance and transparency.
God Bless!



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2 comments:

Ary said...

Metamorphosis of Philippine politics in the making.

I AM SAM said...

The victory of Fr. Panlilio proved several notions: first, Philippine politics is already deteriorated as evidenced by priests taking the last resort; lay men have proven to be ineffective leaders; third, the separation of the State and the Church is useless Constitutional provision; fourth, voters are still inclined to make choices on the perspective of fantasy and not reality; finally, divine intervention is true and Fr. Panlilio won because God said so.

It's always a runout at The Runout TV!