Eddie 2010

IS IT true that the image of Mama Mary has been taken out of the Office of the Governor?
It was my friend Narsing asking an acquaintance, a capitol employee named Senyong, we chanced upon at Fiorgelato in SM City Pampanga one early evening.
What image? I asked, cutting off any reply to the first question.
I am not sure if it was Fatima or the Miraculous Medal but it was that which was placed on the kariton backdropped with a cardboard inscribed “Dala ta la ding daing ding pakakalulu king kapitolyu” pushed by Among Ed Panlilio from the cathedral to the Comelec office when he filed his certificate of candidacy, Narsing clarified.
Yes, I think I saw it the first and only time I went to my compadre’s office last year. I was kind of touched by its presence so as to reflect that as Among Ed came under the protective care of Mama Mary during the campaign, so he would now be under her caring guidance to serve her children well as their servant-leader. So what happened?
Mama Mary went the way of the previous governors, Senyong said matter-of-factly.
What? Mama Mary fed to the rats and cockroaches at the ceiling of the Benigno Aquino Hall? I nearly choked on my macchiato. That is sacrilege! How could a priest, even if suspended from his priestly functions, do such a thing? Governor Panlilio has not suspended himself from his faith, right? Got to ask Bishop Ambo about this.
Calm down, boy, Mama Mary was stored in some appropriate place, Senyong assured.
So why was she taken away from the Among’s office?
In the spirit of ecumenism, so the Governor himself said. You know how it is with other religions when it comes to “graven” images.
Spare me.
Aha! I knew it! It was Narsing as though making the discovery to the cure of AIDS. Now, everything is coming into place.
What do you mean?
Tell me, is Atty. Vivian Dabu Catholic?
Born Again, Senyong said. And he left, fearful that some of the Governor’s men frequenting SM would see him talking to me.
She is indispensable to the Governor.
It does not take much genius to know that. Everybody has been ganging up on her, especially the Governor’s own civil society groups, yet she stays.
You know why?
Other than the malicious insinuations woven around otherwise innocent, even commendable, stories of their being on the job up to the wee hours at the capitol or at the Governor’s house in Clark, I don’t know why.
Ah, serves you right for hitting the Governor at every opportunity thus depriving you of the morsels of information coming out of his very own circle.
Okay, tell me.
The removal of Mama Mary is a sine qua non to the total support of a powerful group of non-Catholics for Panlilio.
The Catholics have not given up on him, why would he court non-Catholic support?
To pursue a national agenda...
Panlilio for President in 2010, you believe that?
Panlilio believes it. A number of his people quoted him as saying, “Because of what I have done for Pampanga, I have given hope to the whole Philippines.”
He has started believing his own propaganda, crafted for him by the Ateneo and the Inquirer.
Panlilio has another believer.
Yeah, Marni Castro!
Bobo, Brother Eddie Villanueva, that’s who. Panlilio has become a regular fixture in the television and radio programs, as well as in gatherings of the Jesus Is Lord Fellowship. There is a so-called council of ministers composed of pastors and preachers of other denominations that he most defers to now. The recent forum on good governance was their call.
Okay, I got you. I see now, an Eddie-and-Eddie tandem in 2010. It does not automatically mean Panlilio will be the candidate for President.
Neither does it mean Villanueva. What matters now is they have forged an understanding and laying down the groundwork for a national campaign.
So Mama Mary had to go?
In the exigencies of politics, why not?
Pray this ain’t so. I may have given up on Panlilio as a governor. But I still have faith in him as a priest.