But, official or not, it does not matter. What these photos did was to inspire more people to press charges against Gloria and company. There are 20 more plunder and civil cases that are waiting to filed on top of the two that are currently being processed by the courts.

Looks like it’s going to be a merry Christmas for most people, who are now attending sale events and looking for ways to save up from best cigar deals to bazaars best finds. And a really sad one for a president who once said “I am sorry” for getting involve in an election fraud.

The latest Pinoy Henyo champ

May justice be served…quick. And we want to see more Arroyo & Supreme Court vs. De Lima et al dramatic showdown. John Grisham would be blushing like a school girl.

GMA7 News created a Facebook page for EDSA, including profiles of known personalities of that time:

Cory created an invitation to Ninoy’s funeral. Over a million members confirmed their attendance.

Former General Fabian Ver’s wall post:

Gringo Honasan’s Fan Page:

While issuing a travel ban (a.k.a. “Black Alert”) is HK’s call, it doesn’t mean that the Philippines is in the brink of collapse, that we’re a terrorist-infested territory. I just find it unacceptable that we share the ranks of Somalia and Iraq, we haven’t reach that mark yet. It is true that parts of Mindanao have been war-torn for decades, but most of these are results of clashing ideologies of people wanting change, of rebels with causes. And to date, we now have extremists infiltrating their ranks, government-sanctioned warlords (like the Ampatuans) and a police force that sorely lacks training. But these are issues all functioning governments in the world would like to address and resolve immediately. These are isolated cases that do not paralyze the lives of the rest of us in this sunny part of the world. We still can move freely – businesses in all forms likeForex training seminars, manang’s sari-sari store, and pirated dvd’s thrive, our babies grow, our students graduate, more families and friendships are formed and people can say whatever they want to say without getting shot, skinned or beheaded.

Let me end with this: Lightning could always strike anywhere – from Pentagon to the remotest parts of the world. Nothing in this world is really that secure. Airplanes crash. We get bombed. People die.

Whoa. Like you could scare me and send me out whimpering?

Now in the spirit of fairness, I admit to replying to posts that I find over-the-top ridiculous. Like those desperate posts quoting Bible verses as a way of getting heaven’s stamp on it. I sometimes can’t help dry wit and sarcasm get the best of me. I’m just a human who can’t stand jejemons, irrational and senseless talks that have been driving your fan page crazy for God knows how long.

I still do not possess a halo and get visions like most of you do. But I believe in decency, responsibility, honesty and kindness. And I do believe in a God who advocates these qualities in people who are supposed to be the salt and light of this world.

Now Sam pray tell me (I know you’re reading), is there anything wrong about exercising my divine right of speaking my mind out and expressing an opinion far different from yours?

Let me tell you what I think about your page when I first joined in (yesterday) and just by reading through most of your posts. I would be brutally honest, hoping that one day you will all rouse from your slumber.

You may have not probably realized this, but anyone who would read through your wall WILL NOT VOTE FOR Brother Eddie (obviously). Most of the posts in your page are verging on too much spirituality, delusions, wrong theology, erroneous understanding of democratic and political processes, inability to discern religious from the constitution and jaw-dropping immaturity. Some of you have just painted a picture of a hysterical Christianity, professing faith but showing otherwise, and making people outside your circle feel like “heathens”. Or “unbelievers” — like the way you would label them to make yourselves feel spiritually superior.

If you think I am imagining things, try taking a review of your wall posts and read through them yourself. Have you imagined how these bigots populating your page can sow damage to your presidential bet?

To the rest of the Admin, instead of picking on people to ax from that page the way your watchdog Sam is doing (all bark and no bite), I suggest that you do your job first. Interact with your members, provide mature insights to guide the disgruntled, and plan your page by not propagating lies and allowing emotions to swell like tide. You have actually did Brother Eddie irreparable damage already by letting this page run amuck. Just look at the poll results.

Now Sam get your ax and chop me off your page if that would make you feel better. I think I have just popped a nerve.

———————

Author’s Note: I have decided to post the link here to that FB site to expose the lies and delusions of people lurking there. It can be a painful and annoying read but go find out for yourselves.

But unlike shopping, reality says you cannot return a defective president. A defective choice would mean catastrophe for 6 years.

I would like to have a leader who has a full grasp of the whole situation and knows what to do with them. Someone who does not crack under pressure but is able to overcome it. I share your dream to see this country move forward under the capable leadership of someone who has proven himself worthy. And when I wrote “worthy”, I do not refer to the man’s perfection but his ability to weather the storm and come out of it whole.

It took me days to realize that Gibo Teodoro actually does not deserve my vote. Gibo is considered as a Level 5 leader given his sterling academic and professional background. But I find his integrity marred by his associations with people of questionable backgrounds. What swayed my vote was his campaign to impeach former Supreme Court Justice Davide and extend Gloria Arroyo’s term through charter change. Not to mention his careless filing of his statement of assets and liabilities as documented by GMA TV.

Another question remains unanswered. How would Gibo treat GMA when he assumes power? GMA is most likely to win a congressional seat, a deliberate act to secure herself and her family from lawsuit. What would Gibo do to his former boss?

I won’t go for either of these other guys.

Noynoy and Villar camps have been busy attacking each other with black propaganda. Erap is a convicted plunderer. Brother Eddie’s righteousness is a choking hazard. And the three others are simply just not ripe for the position they should have started out as senators or congressmen.

That’s why I’m voting for Richard Gordon for president. We need someone as fearless and determined as he already is to discipline this country from the highest and lowest levels of the bureaucracy down to the simplest citizen. A more experienced leader who has a proven track record in governance and a willpower to make things happen is what this country needs. Never mind that he brags about his accomplishments. As long as he can deliver what the job entails, why would that matter?

Reference:
A comprehensive lifestyle checks on our presidential bets (GMA7)

While everyone has his own list of pluses and minuses and a set of uniqueness, Brother Eddie Villanueva outscores them in so many ways you’d think you are dreaming.

Say the magic word: Righteous

This is his pet word – righteous. Be it a righteous person or righteous governance, this word is a staple in his speeches.

“I have been fighting for good government and righteous leadership…”

“In Proverbs 25:5, remove the wicked away from the king’s throne so the government will be based on righteousness.”

“In other words, I believe in my heart that Godly Filipinos must be encouraged as long as they are competent, as long as they are qualified to run for any public office so that we can have a righteous government …”

“ We just want to build a righteous political party.”

His supporters even echo this in many occasions to defend him against those who dared question him. There are a majority of us, Christians or not, who are not really sold to the “righteous governance” of a “righteous leader” like Brother Eddie.

I’d tell you why.

He shoves his concept of “righteousness” down everyone’s throats making people feel unworthy, dirty, sinful and an outcast. Notice how he would pepper his speeches with biblical verses, inject the word “righteous” in almost every sentence and view some minorities like the homosexuals as sinners. If you are to win people, you are not suppose to cast stones on them.

Poor choice of words

Here are some definitions of the word “righteous”:

Morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.
In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment.

Brother Eddie’s brand of righteousness is not grounded on reality but on a fairytale. Six years of zero corruption? Are you nuts? Everyone who sat in Malacanang vowed to do the same only to find themselves ensnared by it. Millions have died fighting to restore righteousness and equality, and I have yet to see a government in my lifetime that is able to exercise this in a fuller sense of the word. While laws on equality have been passed, injustices still happen around the world.

Because we are not in heaven yet.

This kind of idealism does not appeal to everyday people (or “unbelievers” as his flock would call them). It simply alienates the ordinary Juan the way most Brother Eddie supporters do to those whose opinions differ from them. They attack like locusts and accuse non-supporters of opposing God’s plans. Brother Eddie is God’s plan. Therefore, running against him will make you part of the devil’s clan.

It is the “holier than thou” attitude that most people, even the hypocrites themselves, despise. Brother Eddie exemplified this best when asked about his opinion on “Ang Ladlad”.

“I have no religious biases. I have no religion; you may be surprised. I hate discrimination, as a full-blooded democrat.”

The full-blooded democrat says he believes in the Constitution—“unless it contradicts God’s law.” He detests discrimination, he says, and generously allows that homosexuals are also loved by God. “I have to really share with them the restoration of moral and righteous fibers of one’s existence.” All who have fallen into homosexuality “need help.”

Look who’s talking.

The kingdom of absolutes (and some compromises)

It’s Brother Eddie or nothing. It can’t be Noynoy, Villar or whoever, because they do not fit the righteous-meter. They do not share the hotline with God.

To his supporters, Brother Eddie is the righteous one, short of saying the anointed one, who can save the Philippines from corrupting itself. Give the rein to someone who is not as righteous, this country would go bankrupt. Give it to him, no one is going to serve roaches for dinner. After all, did he not promise six years of zero corruption?

And why not? Brother Eddie claimed that God spoke to him in many occasions. Of course, God is the better judge of that. We were not there when it happened.

What we saw were some sort of manifestations of what the talks had been about. In 1998, Brother Eddie anointed Jose De Venecia to become the next president and duped everyone there into believing that the acronym JDV stood for Jesus Declaration of Victory, and not for Jose de Venecia. Then in the middle of the program, everyone was already chanting JDV, meaning the old de Venecia.

Then the prophecies came declaring him as the soon coming president of the country. When he lost his first presidential bid, that sour note took the pulpit. Now that he’s running again, his political ad “Eddie Ako!” becomes part of the church service.

And what was he doing in Apollo Quiboloy’s sanctuary a few months ago? Isn’t he Apollo the “son” of God who Brother Eddie used to consider as one of the country’s false religious teachers? Funny that Quiboloy chose Gibo Teodoro over someone who is supposed to be his “co-citizen” in heaven. That’s the problem with people who exchanged verbal punches in the past. They do not easily forget.

My conclusion

The problem with Brother Eddie lies on his being a established preacher, a radical one at that, who sought public office and has now difficulties discerning politics from his religion. Given the fact that he resigned from his ministry and aspire for the presidency, he failed to take his church robe off and be citizen Eddie who walks the earth with simple men. The way he communicated and interpreted his platform, while ideal and good, smelled like a transcript of his Sunday message that scares away people of weaker faith.

References:
A government of righteous men
Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva: To rise anew

Whether there is truth to this or none, I would still think that an educated guy like Gibo is most likely to spearhead the anti-jejenism campaign. His steps may be bold and perceived harsh by some, because that’s how sensitive we are as a people to actions that would require shutting down our egos. It gives me an idea on how serious this guy as a leader who wants to effect change and lift lives above the gutter. Gibo has something better in mind other than make a public show of schooling jejemons and correcting them.

This list only includes the top candidates who have not been in the executive office yet. We know that Erap had been there and done that, so we’re leaving him off the list.

While most of them, except for one, have outstanding records in public service, survey shows that no matter how glaring the facts are, majority is favoring the guy who has a zero accomplishment. I don’t know why most people have not dared to ask themselves this question – what did Noynoy do all those years he spent as a legislator? Not even a bill credited to him was passed. While his colleagues worked, he probably smoked his ashton cigars and drank pina colada somewhere in Luisita.

Of course I’m not saying that one should vote for Villar who was able to pass almost 7% of the 700 plus proposals filed, because I doubt his sincerity and integrity due to widespread speculations that GMA is backing him up. (If there’s smoke, there is a fire.) Dick Gordon and Gibo possess a good set of brains but they have not registered themselves yet in the consciousness of the masses. Maybe they will have their time soon.

At the bottom of the pyramid are three or four more candidates fighting over the 1-2% share. Brother Eddie seemed to have lost his command over his 5 million plus church members. Nothing against a cleric running for government office, but somehow, that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. What would be his stand on certain issues? He even courted the followers of the Quiboloy cult while his own pastors turned their religious gatherings into political rallies. There are going to be too many compromises that would later on destroy his reputation as a pastor and eventually divide churches. Will he be Brother Eddie first or just plain working Eddie? And management-wise, what is there to show?

We still have a few weeks more to go. What can I say but at the end of the day one should vote according to what his conscience dictates. Even if it would mean not exercising that right this time.

Kris Aquino’s three-year-old son, Baby James Yap, has just sort of endorsed Manny Villar during Noynoy Aquino’s campaign sortie in Bacolod City. How it sent everyone laughing and Kris going “No, it’s a no. Go na.”, watch this:

Manny Villar must be thanking his spin doctors now for his campaign theme song, “Dagat ng Basura”, which was received warmly by Pinoys. Honestly, the tune was a lot better than any campaign theme that came out of the tube lately. It heaped positive feedbacks like one of those accutane reviews and sort of silenced the worries on how Villar will plan to recover his billions of pesos spent on winning the nation to his side.

I know. He’ll build more houses. And roads going though them.