Why GMA’s on top

"GMA’s landslide is now inexorable," says a high-level political observer of the possibility of President Macapagal-Arroyo winning the May 10 elections. Here’s why:

He thinks it is likely that the El Shaddai, a Catholic charismatic group, will go for her. "With 4 million votes, that means a lot. And the El Shaddai’s votes are just partially factored in the surveys."

A surprising turn of events is the commitment of the Philippine Baptist Church, which has some 600,000 members nationwide, to vote for Gloria. This was learned two weeks ago. People behind the movement include Bishop Efren Tendero, who is head of the Philippine Evangelical Churches.

Our source says the Methodists, led by the brethren in Pampanga, made the declaration last week that they are voting for Gloria.

And there is still the possibility of the Iglesia ni Cristo, which has what my source says, "a loose arrangement with the El Shaddai", joining the bandwagon to install the incumbent president in Malacañang for six years. The INC, which is perceived to declare its support for candidates at the last minute – for the candidates most likely to win – was tossing coins over either Ping Lacson or Fernando Poe Jr. as its bet.

What’s surprising is the Baptists and Methodists going for Gloria, considering that evangelicals and even Roman Catholics have declared their choice of Bro. Eddie Villanueva for president.

There’s more from our source. Joma Sison’s declaration from the Netherlands indicates that 1.7 million rural voters are going for Gloria. What’s more, it is likely that the Trade Union Council of the Philippines, with 1.2 million members making it the largest labor union in the country, is also for Gloria.

Our source cites reasons for Gloria’s increasing popularity in the polls. First, he says the Fernando Poe and Raul Roco campaigns are collapsing. Poe does not have any candidates in 17 per cent of the country. "That’s a big vacuum, and his machinery is limited. And then, nothing has come of his and Lacson’s promise of unification during the last four months. So people are fed up."

As to the Institute of Philippine Culture survey which showed that the poor find surveys irrelevant, our source says, "That’s only natural. The poor are not concerned with how candidates are faring in surveys. They are concerned about food, about where their next meal will be coming from." But the surveys in all elections, in 1992 and 1998, and even earlier – the Osmeña-Marcos fight, the Garcia-Macapagal fight, the Macapagal-Marcos fight – have been correct. The candidates leading the surveys turned out winners in elections. With Gloria’s rise in the surveys – from No. 4 before Christmas to No. 3 in late January, then No. 2 in late February, to a tie last March, to +5 in mid-April and, now, +10.5, the source says Gloria’s a sure winner.

Eco-tourism, marine conservation and youth development projects will revolve around the 108-year-old Malabrigo Major Lighthouse at the southern coast of Batangas, particularly on the north shore of the Verde passage separating the island of Luzon from Mindoro. The Spanish colonial lighthouse has been adopted by the Akiko Thomson, Inc., an NGO founded by Olympic swimmer Akiko Thomson, who signed a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Coast Guard last month.

Activities being implemented around the lighthouse are the Malabrigo Kiddie Boat Regatta and swimming competition for boys and girls aged between eight and 15, and the Marine Reserve Project. These have been supported by the Friends of Malabrigo, the Malabrigo Barangay council, and some private corporations. Other projects are the installation of water-sealed toilet bowls, made possible by the intervention of Dr. Quintin S. Doromal and the annual Malabrigo Medical-Dental Mission sponsored by the Cosmopolitan Church – UCCP (Manila).

Future activities are the expansion of the marine reserve coverage area, dolphin and whale watching, camping, mountain-trekking, tree-planting, and leadership training. A cooperative for fishermen and farmers is also being formed.

If you have the blahs these days, read a feel-good book written by Filipina author Corazon del Mundo, a mother of three who migrated to the United States in 1979 as a designer for two decades, retired to write it, and returned to the Philippines recently to have it published here. Being Extra-ordinary! Living Your Highest Potential taps into one’s inner self. It is said to be a journey through an indi-vidual’s past, present and future in a highly-readable, easy-to-finish pocketbook.

Divided into 28 chapters, the 242-page volume tells how one woman, mother and wife, discovered universal truths about God, love, destiny, faith, reality, life and trials (including the death of a loved one), and how these vague truths can make up an extraordinary being.

Being Extra-ordinary! is a tool for the reader to drown fears about one’s chapter and past, because to be extra-ordinary means com-pleting a journey into one’s self. As Del Mundo says, only through a "sudden shift of conscious-ness" or the willing-ness to accept one’s self will a person "understand and recognize his true self and its divine beauty".

The book is available at National Bookstores nationwide and Powerbooks outlets in Metro Manila.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]