Bro. Eduardo "Eddie" Villanueva | |
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Bro. Eddie Villanueva | |
Bangon Pilipinas Party candidate for President of the Philippines |
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Election date May 10, 2010 |
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Running mate | Perfecto Yasay Jr |
Personal details | |
Born | Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines |
October 6, 1946
Political party | Bangon Pilipinas Party |
Spouse(s) | Sis. Adoracion "Dory" Villanueva |
Occupation | Televangelist Owner of ZOE Broadcasting Network Author Speaker |
Religion | Evangelical Christianity |
Eduardo C. Villanueva (born October 6, 1946), known as Bro. Eddie Villanueva, is a religious and political leader in the Philippines and a presidential candidate in the 2010 Philippine election as standard bearer of the Bangon Pilipinas Party. Prior to joining the politics, he is best known as the founder and leader of the Jesus Is Lord Church but officially declared his leave of absence as its Spiritual Director during the launching of Bagong Pilipinas Movement on March 28, 2009 “so that [he] may concentrate on the transformation of our beloved nation.” [1]
In 2004, he was a presidential candidate in the Philippine election but lost to incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and placed last in a field of five candidates, with 6.2% of the vote - although many Filipinos believed[2] that the 2004 election in general was an alleged large-scale election fraud, particularly due to the Aragoncillo Project.
On August 21, 2009, he announced that he will be running in the 2010 election and on November 30, 2009, filed his Certificate of Candidacy with the Commission on Elections "accompanied by his running mate, former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chief Perfecto Yasay, and five senatorial bets".[3][4]
He is the owner and chairman of ZOE Broadcasting Network, a commercial TV station currently operated by GMA Network through Quality TeleVision (QTV) now GMA News TV. He is also the owner and president of Jesus Is Lord Colleges Foundation Inc. (JILCF), a Christian school in Bocaue, Bulacan.
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Biography
Bro. Eddie was born on October 6, 1946 in Bocaue, Bulacan to parents Joaquin T. Villanueva and Maria Cruz Villanueva, both now deceased. (The elder Villanueva was a former Olympic sprinter who represented the Philippines in the Far Eastern Games for four consecutive years in 1920s).
He is married to Sis. Adoracion "Dory" Villanueva and they have four children. His eldest son, Mayor Eduardo "Jon-Jon" Villanueva, Jr., incumbent mayor of Bocaue, Bulacan lost his campaign in 2004 but won in the May 2007 elections. Jonjon was charged with murder for allegedly ordering the shooting of a soldier of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the May 2007 elections.[5][6][7][8] His daughter, Joni Villanueva-Tugna, is a Christian singer and TV host. His other son, Cong. Emmanuel Joel Villanueva, representing the CIBAC party list, became the youngest member of the House of Representatives (HOR) when he took his oath of office on February 6, 2002. According to the Philippine Star, Joel Villanueva is the fifth richest party-list congressman with a net worth of P18.4 million.[9]
Education and early life
In 1969, Villanueva graduated with a degree in commerce, majoring in economics, from the Philippine College of Commerce (PCC), since renamed the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. He was immersed in both student and labor movements in the 1970s, joining the progressive segments of society which opposed the Marcos dictatorship. Villanueva also took up law at the University of the Philippines but was already into so much activism that he never had time to take the bar [examination]. During Martial law, he fought local landgrabbers in Bulacan and ended up being jailed twice for his political beliefs and participation in various mass actions.[10]
He worked as a full-time faculty member in the Economics and Finance Department of PCC until 1972. He then worked as the export manager of Maran Export Industries in 1973 and from 1976 to 1977, he was the general manager of the Agape Trading Co. He returned to PCC, now renamed, in 1978 as a part-time professor.
Activist turned preacher
According to their church's website, Villanueva claimed to have "had a life-changing encounter with the Lord in 1973 while at the forefront of a leftist movement". At that time, he was also leading his family (and other families) in his home province of Bulacan in an uphill, protracted legal battle as he himself became a victim of a notorious land-grabbing syndicate. Five days after that "dramatic encounter with God", Bro. Eddie was brought face to face with a miracle he could never forget: the land-grabbers were arrested and detained.[11]
In 1978, Villanueva founded the Jesus Is Lord Church formerly named Jesus is Lord Fellowship, "which started with just 15 members from his Bible studies". In 2007, "JIL said it has over three million members today in 43 countries. Most members abroad are overseas Filipino workers and their families." [12]
Awards and various citations
Villanueva was ordained Minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1979 by the California-based Victory in Christ Church and International Ministries. He has also been conferred the office of Episcopacy by the Sectarian Body of Christ in the Philippines in April 1996.[citation needed]
In February 2001, Brother Eddie received the EDSA People Power Freedom Award for ZOE TV 11 for its fair coverage of the People Power II movement.[citation needed] He founded and owns ZOE Broadcasting Network Inc. and operates Channel 11 on Filipino television. Bro. Eddie hosts three ZOE programs, Diyos at Bayan, PJM (Philippines for Jesus Movement) Forum and Jesus The Healer.
2004 presidential bid
Villanueva's campaign in the 2004 Philippine presidential election never went unnoticed because he was the only candidate with a very strong religious identity as he is, as noted above, the founder and senior bishop of the Jesus Is Lord International, an independent Pentecostal group that has branches in Asia, Europe, and America. He campaigns on the claim that he is the only moral candidate for president, and that he has a program to eradicate corruption and restore morality in government. His campaigns carried both religious and political colors with the "V" finger sign representing Dios at Bayan (God and Nation).
He was the only presidential candidate who was claimed to have gathered an audience of millions in one place, making his campaign subject to arguments as to just what was the exact number of person who attended. In his Quirino grandstand campaign, his supporters claimed that they reached 3 million, but the conservative estimates of the police and security forces was only 600 thousand. This was followed by another major political rally at Ayala Avenue in Makati City where his supporters claimed the crowd reached 100,000 but the policemen estimated it to be only 10,000. His last grand campaign was done four days before the election at the Luneta Park and they claimed they reached five million in the crowd, but the national television news programs covered the event saying the crowd reached million (without giving the exact unit).
Despite the polls done by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia showing him trailing among the four contenders,[13] Villanueva was confident that he would win the elections saying that "this is why we do not believe in the surveys of the two companies that are usually commissioned by political parties here — because the more than three million human bodies (at my rally) can indicate the real results of the survey."[14]
He was the only presidential candidate who did not spend much during his campaigns as most, if not all of the campaign materials, including television advertisements were donated by his followers. His campaigns called for an alternative leadership, which he called righteous leadership based on a certain Biblical passage that says, "Righteousness exalts a nation."
Because of his religious identity he was accused of running for the presidency because of his religious interest and detractors stated that if elected his main goal would be converting the nation to Pentecostalism, a charge unlikely to be ignored in the Philippines, the third-largest Roman Catholic country in the world.
Villanueva's campaigns were marked with persuasion, praying, spontaneity of words, crowd singing (a carry over of the Pentecostals' Praise & Worship practice) and celebrity supporters. Among them were Coney Reyes, Karla Martinez, Piolo Pascual, Gary Valenciano, Donita Rose, Yoyoy Villame, Nonoy Zuniga, Jeremias Jangad, Christian Bautista, and many others.
These elements made his campaign distinct from the others, but certainly did not translate into much success at the ballot box.
A former supporter of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, he has turned into one of her most rabid critics after the election. He remained to be one of the visible figures of the opposition side, who called for the resignation of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged election fraud and corruption.
2010 presidential bid
Villanueva ran again for the 2010 presidential election where he finished fifth out of nine presidential candidates with 1,125,878 votes or 3.12% of the total votes.
References
- ^ Pazzibugan, Dona (2009-03-29). "Villanueva filed leave of absence as JIL pastor". Philippine Daily Inquirer. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090329-196772/Brother-Eddie-not-with-Among-Ed-Panlilio. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ "Pulse: Most Mindanaoans say Arroyo cheated in 2004 polls". GMANews.TV. 2008-01-25. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/77997/Most-Mindanaoans-believe-Arroyo-cheated-in-04-polls---Pulse. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Tan, Kimberly Jane; GMANews.TV (2009-11-30). "JIL's Eddie Villanueva, party-mates file COC". GMANews.TV. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/178170/jils-eddie-villanueva-party-mates-file-coc. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Crisostomo, Sheila (2009-12-01). "Brother Eddie files COC for president; Yasay is running mate". The Philippine Star. http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=528438&publicationSubCategoryId=63. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Brother Eddie’s candidate-son faces murder raps, Philippine Daily Inquirer, May 2007
- ^ Bocaue bet Villanueva charged with murder. GMANews.TV. 2007-05-09. http://www.gmanews.tv/video/6469/bocaue-bet-villanueva-charged-with-murder. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Anak ni Bro Eddie Villanueva kinasuhan ng pagpatay, GMA News, October 3, 2007
- ^ AFP pushes murder raps vs Jon-jon Villanueva, GMA News, May 9, 2007
- ^ Bro. Mike's rep is richest party-list lawmaker, Philippine Star, June 7, 2009
- ^ "Villanueva's biography". Eddie Villanueva Official Website. 1946-10-06. http://broeddie.ph/humble-but-illustrious-beginning/. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ "Bishop Bro. Eddie C. Villanueva - The Man, His Message, and the Ministry". Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide Official Website. 2009-04-29. http://jilworldwide.org/v2/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=28&Itemid=94. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ "JIL holds prayer rally to mark 29th year". The Philippine Star. 2007-10-02. http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=17982. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ Paredes, Ducky (2004-03-04). "Column: Sws, Pulse Asia Agree On Gma". Malaya. Archived from [unknown the original] on unknown. http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/ht/ht004193.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-30.
- ^ "Bro. Eddie: Rp Reborn After Polls". The Philippine Star. 2004-05-11. Archived from [unknown the original] on unknown. http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/pe/pe003154.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-30.