Philippine presidential candidate warns of bloody revolution

Updated April 23, 2010 10:51:00

Campaigning for next month's national election in the Philippines is in full swing. Among the presidential candidates is the popular evangelist leader Eduardo Villanueva who heads the "Rise Philippines" party, known locally as the Bangon Pilipinas. A former ally of President Gloria Arroyo, Eduardo Villanueva says Ms Arroyo has betrayed the Filipino people and allowed corruption and inequality to flourish.

Presenter: Tom Fayle
Speaker: Philippine presidential candidate Eduardo Villanueva

FAYLE: Eduardo Villaneuva or Brother Eddie as he is more commonly known is not your normal televangelist or politician for that matter. A former leftist who found god, he was once a political economist and jailed under the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos for his political beliefs. Today he heads the Protestant Jesus is Lord movement which claims millions of followers in dozens of countries. He also runs his own television network.

FOLLOWER: We need to pray for him, because it is going to be a tough journey and we know that there are a lot of obstacles ahead. But through him I see change and I see a bright future for our Filipino nation.

FAYLE: There is no doubting too that Brother Eddie can pull a crowd, though perhaps not the vast numbers he did during his first tilt at the presidency in 2004, the result of which he says was rigged. Now in his 60s, Brother Eddie's speeches rail against the graft that infest Philippine society. His campaign slogan "Zero Corruption for Six Years", the normal term for a Philippine presidency.

VILLANUEVA: I am running as president of the Philippines, because it is time to stop the sufferings of millions of our people.

FAYLE: Once a key supporter of incumbent president Gloria Arroyo, Brother Eddie Villanueva is now a seering critic.

VILLANUEVA: I cannot just allow the shenangins in our country without me lifting a single finger. So in otherwords, all I can say is that GMA, President Gloria Arroyo provided the people with a need and hope for the future, but its ended in stealing that hope from the people. The reason why we are positively and aggressively participating in this democratic process is to prevent I would say the threat of possible bloody revolution because the disparity of the region, the poor is incredible. For the last nine years, the victims of extra judicial killings, imagine for the last nine years, 81 according to statistics, 81 people who salvaged and killed and not even one mastermind in injected and even the suspects in 57 innocent people who were massacred, including 31 major practitioners, a generation of major practitioners in Mindanao. Now the cases against them were dropped. I could not believe this. I did not believe that this could happen in the first Christian country in Asia.

FAYLE: He also accuses Mrs Arroyo of attempting to perpetuate her rule through constitutional change.

VILLANUEVA: The signs are very obvious. First, the current president used to be a senator, vice-president and president and the spirit of our constitution, not only the spirit, but the provisions are very clear that the term of the president should only be six year term. But because of technicality, she has been in office as president for nine years, almost a decade and now that she ought to end her term, she is running for Congress in her district and obviously to be the speaker of the house and as a speaker of the house, she can easily convert Congress into constitutional assembly and change the presidential system into parliamentary system. And the fact to be prime minister forever and at the same time, she has been in the system to appoint the chief justice of the supreme court, although the Constitution is very clear that the outgoing president has no legal right to do it. So all the signs are very obvious that she wants to perpetrate herself in parliament.

FAYLE: Opinion polling has consistently put Brother Eddie Villanueva outside the running, but he dismisses such surveys as unrepresentative and he says he has no intention of abandoning his bid and throwing his weight behind one of the more likely candidates, maintaining he can still win. For Brother Eddie, May 10th is judgement day. Tom Fayle, Manila.