Priest considers presidency

About half a dozen candidates are preparing for next year’s presidential elections in The Philippines, but all of them are traditional politicians, or "trapos", as they are called somewhat derisively.

Those wanting a difference are hoping a priest who gave up the cloth two years ago to win a provincial governor’s election will run, and pull off another upset victory.

"I am not telling you I will go through with it. I told you I am not running, but they are pushing me to run," Eddie Panlilio, the governor of the northern province of Pampanga, said in an interview published in AsiaOne.

"It may sound corny, but to me it’s a matter of God’s will."

The church, a powerful force in Asia’s largest Catholic nation, is ambivalent about his possible candidacy — he was suspended from priestly duties after winning Pampanga.

Panlilio, 55, has been in office for just under two years, but he has been lauded for raising government revenues in Pampanga, including a 10-fold increase in takings from the notoriously corrupt sand quarrying operations in the area.

In the governor’s elections in 2007, he took on two well-funded candidates from powerful families and won against long odds. The question is whether he can replicate that on a national level.

"If we can project ourselves well and we have a platform that is appealing to the people, if we become close to the people and they believe in us ... it will catch on like wildfire," said Panlilio, who has said he is open to contesting the presidency, but has not made up his mind.

"But if we fail to do that, if the people do not embrace our advocacy, then this will fizzle out."

Dressed in a well-worn white polo shirt and brown slacks, the governor comes across in sharp contrast to other prospective candidates, who include four senators, the defence secretary and the sitting vice-president.

Elections to replace President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be held in May 2010, but nominations are likely to be called for by November, officials have said.

Farmers, student groups and civil society organizations are backing Panlilio, and suggest he run with Grace Padaca, the governor of Isabela province and a former journalist, as his vice-presidential candidate.

Both are regarded as non-traditional candidates and analysts say their popularity is a reflection of public disgust at corruption in the administrations of Arroyo and of her predecessor Joseph Estrada.

But becoming president is a long way off for Panlilio. Analysts say a credible presidential campaign needs at least $52 million and an army of supporters across the archipelago.

He doesn’t have the funding, and is perhaps not as well known in the rest of the country as he is in the northern region of Luzon, where both Manila and Pampanga are located.

Panlilio, who says he spends about an hour of his day in prayer and often asks for divine intervention before making difficult decisions, harbours no illusions of an easy win.