Bacolod News

Hagad: Reclaiming our birthright

ONE of the very positive developments in the “New Politics” front is the number of good, qualified and very sensible individuals who have expressed their intention to run for elective positions come May 2010. Some are even eyeing the highest position of them all, the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines. These include Brother Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord Movement, Governor Ed Panlilio of Pampanga, JC de los Reyes of Kapatiran and Nick Perlas of the environment movement. These four gentlemen are neither Don Quixotes foolishly jousting at windmills or run-of-the-mill nobodies desiring to have their names included in the political history books, even if only as clowns. Except for Fr. Ed Panlilio, I have personally talked to and interviewed them and they have their feet more firmly on the ground than those presidentiables who are currently holding positions in government.
Gov. “Among Ed” Panlilio is nationally remembered as the Roman Catholic priest who not only dislodged an incumbent widely known as a warlord in Pampanga who had jueteng and drugs hovering closely around him. Fr. Panlilio also made headlines when, during his first two months in office, his administration earned by way of sand and gravel fees more than what the previous governor generated in practically his entire term as governor. Among Ed also became controversial when he blew the whistle on the P500,000.00 “cash gift” passed around to all governors and local officials during an audience with President Arroyo in Malacañang. Whatever his weaknesses are, bribery and corruption are apparently not among them. Brother Eddie Villanueva is an evangelist whose Jesus is Lord congregation already number in the millions. By no means has an imposing figured, there must be something very good in the way he carries his life if he can convince these millions to trod his path towards God. I have met and talked to his pastors and members of his Church in Bacolod and they are some of the nicest people I know. If they believe in Brother Eddie, he must be quite a guy indeed. JC de los Reyes is probably the youngest among them. Chosen to be the presidential standard bearer of the “Ang Kapatiran Party” a businessman by occupation, a councilor in Olongapo City. I had the chance to listen to his views over dinner last week, and to have his personal background supported by Ang Kapatiran founder Nandy Pacheco and political strategist Eric Manalang, JC de los Reyes also has behind him the basic platform of his party (referred to by them as the Filipinos’ passport to good governance) which makes up the soundest and most Christian approach to government as I have ever seen. I had the privilege of interviewing Nick Perlas in Sky Cable’s talk show “Bottomline”. Already a well-known figure among environmentalists, Nick struck me as a person who knew who he was and where he was going. Like Among Ed, Brother Eddie and JC de los Reyes, he did not have the air of a superstar like most traditional politicians try to project, but he had something much better – an air of sincerity. Only Brother Eddie dared to run for president against the trapos during the 2004 elections. It is an indictment against our present leadership that more and more reformists have decided to throw caution to the winds and run literally on a wing and a prayer. For what is Among Ed, Brother Eddie, JC de los Reyes and Nick Perlas, and what use are the organizations and the moral causes that they stand for if they and good people like them sit by and let the corrupt, the immoral and the malicious run roughshod among us and our nation? Whether they win in the elections or not is not the issue – it is that good people must now move to take over government, to show to the people what good and honest leaders look like, and to reclaim what is our birthright for us. There is no time more appropriate to start than the next election – in 2010.