Pampanga Governor-priest Eddie Panlilio backs Noynoy Aquino for president

MANILA – The governor-priest of a Central Luzon province announced he was giving up his presidential ambition in the May 2010 elections to support the candidacy of the son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon Aquino.

Governor Eddie Panlilio of Pampanga province in Central Luzon said he and other political leaders would take their oath as a members of the Liberal Party (LP), one of the country’s oldest political parties whose standard bearer in the 2010 polls is Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd, the only son of “Tita (Auntie) Cory,” as president Aquino was more popularly known.

In announcing his support for Aquino, Panlilio, however, said he was still seriously considering the invitation of LP leaders to be one of their senatorial candidates, along with Governor Grace Padaca of Isabela province, Cagayan Valley in the Northern Luzon highlands.

In past and recent surveys conducted on the national and regional levels, Aquino has been the popular choice, garnering more than 50 percent of the respondents.

Panlilio, a Catholic priest who is on leave, ran and won as an independent candidate for governor of Pampanga, the home province of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in the 2007 elections.

Panlilio and his supporters attributed his victory to their campaign for good governance and transparency as opposed to “traditional politics.”

Panililio’s victory has been considered the biggest political upset in the 2001 elections because he won over candidates who were closely identified with President Arroyo. They were Lilia Pineda, the wife of suspected gambling lord Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda who hail from Lubao, the hometown of the President; and reelectionist governor Mark Lapid, the son of administration Senator Lito Lapid.

But Pineda filed an election protest against Panlilio, alleging that the priest and his supporters won the election through massive cheating and other poll irregularities.

By announcing his support for Aquino, Panlilio said he was giving up his plan to run for president in the May 2010 polls and the possibility of running for reelection as governor.

He pointed out that an Aquino victory in the polls would help unite the nation and put an end to the seemingly unabated massive graft and corruption that has been the hallmark of President Arroyo since she took over Malacanang in 2001.

With Panlilio’s exit from local politics in Pampanga, the two Arroyo allies – Lilia Pineda and Senator Lito Lapid – said they would run for governor in next year’s polls.

There is also an increasing belief and perception among Pampanga political leaders and residents that President Arroyo herself would run next year for the seat in the House of Representatives now occupied by her son Congressman Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of the second legislative district.

Such belief was heightened by the President’s frequent visits especially to the second district which as of Wednesday, already totaled 48 since the start of the year.

In fact, six Pampanga mayors announced they have prepared a resolution urging Mrs. Arroyo to run for Congress, saying her extensive experience as an economist and as president would be a big help in the next administration as it contends with the problems confronting the nation due to the ongoing global economic and financial turmoil.

The President’s experience, the mayors added, would also boost efforts for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of areas that suffered heavy damage, death and destruction inflicted by four recent typhoons on the main island of Luzon, including Pampanga.

But more than that, they pointed out there is no law which will prohibit the President from running for a lower elective office once she steps down from Malacanang on June 30, 2010.

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