Special Articles

The picture of the 2010 presidential election in the Philippines is becoming clearer, as a dozen probable candidates for the presidency came out wearing sneakers, as if they were ready to run during an early morning road race organized by broadcast firm GMA Network at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Metro Manila on August 28, 2009.  They signed a manifesto bearing their commitment to observe clean and honest election next year, witnessed by no less than the chairman of the Commission on Election or Comelec.
 
Former President Joseph Estrada, Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay of PDP Laban, Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda of Nationalist People's Coalition, Bayani Fernando of Lakas-Kampi CMD, Senator Richard Gordon, Senator Jamby Madrigal, John Carlos delos Reyes of Ang Kapatiran, Senator Francis Pangilinan of Liberal Party, environmentalist Nicanor Perlas, Eddie Villanueva of Bangon Pilipinas, and Senator Manuel Villar of Nationalista Party joined the run-for-a-cause campaign called "Eleksyon 2010: Tatakbo Ka Ba?"

Conspicously absent were Vice President Noli de Castro who was in China and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro who reported sick.  De Castro is reportedly being groomed to be the standard bearer of the Kampi-Lakas CMD alliance, but he has to clear this with Teodoro, another administration bet and Fernando, who is a stalwart of the administration party.

On this national artists awards brouhaha.  An elite group of intellectuals and academicians do not want Carlos J. Caparas in.  Maybe because Caparas is more popular than they are, and have created works that became more popular than theirs.  Caparas, the writer, is a true artist for the masses, although his massacre movies are offensive.

We cannot afford to waste another six-year presidency; we need a new president who can bring us and our acts together for this nation towards real economic development. But is there someone, from the present bunch of presidentiables, who can govern well and become the good president that we need?

From the opinion of txtmania, we know about two presidential contenders who are into house-building, which should at least give them some perspective on what nation-building should be.  (You build the house to provide protection and comfort to the family.) Vice President Noli de Castro, who we heard is doing a good job as the government's housing czar, and Senator Manny Villar, a housing magnate, both own that disctinction.

But building a house is not enough to make a family. That house needs access to a stable, clean and affordable supply of water and sewerage, electricity, telephone services, Internet, cable TV, etc.  That house needs to be surrounded by roads and bridges that lead to schools, churches, offices, hospitals, restaurants, shopping malls, drug stores, gymnasium, market, etc., etc.

Love is the greatest, certainly, but what is the greatest love? Here, let us renew our understanding about the nature and source of love, and the reason why we love.  Let us remind one another of "how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God" (1 John 3:1)! In the love of God, let us also love one another.

Cory Aquino, the first female Philippine president who was swept to power via a military-backed people uprising that ousted the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, died at the age of 76 on August 1, 2009.  A descendant of a landed political clan, Cory turned from an ordinary widow, following the death of her husband Ninoy Aquino in 1983, into a face of the opposition that eventually brought down the dictatorial rule of Marcos.