The Birth of New Politics in Pampanga

A couple of months before the May 2007 elections, the electoral result for governorship in Pampanga was a foregone conclusion.

However, the course of history changed that.

Agitated and out of desperation, a group of conscientious Kapampangans conceived what was otherwise viewed as inconceivable. As the election was approaching, they conceived the idea of a priest running for the governorship. They found a father in Father Ed Panlilio, a symbol for Kapampangan dignity and conscience. Fr. Ed agreed to father what these well-intentioned individuals had conceived.

The conceived idea snowballed and emerged into a pregnant crusade. While the struggle suffered innumerable birth pains as the election drew nearer and endured birth pangs during the election day, Pampanga finally gave birth to a new brand of politics in the province now enjoyed by the Kapampangangs under the moral leadership of Fr. Ed Panlilio.

But given the extreme pain during the birthing process, birth trauma has set in. The enemy of good governance has claimed that the birth of new politics is illegitimate. In fact, they went to the Comelec and contested its legitimacy. Our elected board members and mayors have sided with those who question the paternity of the new politics. They refuse to embrace and cuddle the newborn era of moral, transparent and honest governance.

Incidentally, a coffee table book will pay homage to those individuals who conceived and midwived the birth of new brand of politics in Pampanga. The book, which visually tells the stories of the Kapampangan Crusade for Good Governance, is to be launched in the last week of January 2008.(book cover is shown above)