Bro. Eddie V: Luneta 1 million! Cebu 2,000 only?

While I’m writing this column, at the same I’m watching the maiden or inaugural show of Impact 2004 by Max Soliven on ABS-CBN’s ANC having a first ever television interview of opposition standard bearer actor Fernando Poe Jr. No, I assure you that it wasn’t Willie Nepomuceno that Manong Max was interviewing… though he did fool a lot of people, including this writer.

At this point, allow me to take my hat off to Manong Max Soliven for still having the "it" despite the long 30 years of absence on television. He asked Ronnie Poe, the most difficult and the most controversial questions a talkshow host could only hope they would have the courage to ask – especially about the "trapos" rallying behind him, and of course, his plans and programs of government in case he is elected and the most recent one, why he won’t join the Presidential debate.

No doubt, the first show of Impact, truly made its impact with a lot of people who watched the show and got a first telelook at FPJ and of course, Manong Max Soliven. How do I know it made an impact, right after the show, the late night radio commentators in Cebu used it as their topic for the night.

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Talking about television, last Thursday evening, I was watching GMA-7’s "Debate" with Pareng Oca and Mareng Winnie Monsod discussing the topic whether a college degree is important ingredient for one running for President and yes, you already know both sides of the argument on this issue. The non-college degree holders always use the argument that past presidents of this country who were lawyers or professionals and college degree holders couldn’t even prevent this country from nosediving into an economic quagmire… so having a college degree isn’t the issue.

But it is difficult for our voters to comprehend that one of the minimum requirements of a Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) or the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management (CITOM) traffic enforcer is a college degree… hence, it is expected by a lot of people that the Office of the President should be run by a person who has a college degree. Well, the last time we elected a college dropout, look where it brought this nation… another EDSA revolt!

But, perhaps, the best question to ask parents is whether from now on they would want the schools or colleges that they send their children to to be managed or run by dropouts. Indeed, when we do hire employees for our respective businesses, we definitely would choose one who graduated from college, how much more for the guy in charge of running this country!

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Last weekend, Presidential candidate Bro. Eddie Villanueva stunned all the other Presidentiables when he, as promised held his "show of force" at the Luneta Grandstand and came up with close to a million supporters. Todate, none of the other Presidentiables, even the supposedly popular Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) has ever mustered such a mammoth crowd. That none of Bro. Eddie’s political rivals are making plans to duplicate his feat is understandable, they’re scared that if they fall short of the magic million number, that would be taken as a "Kiss of Death" for the Presidentiable.

So, finally, just when everyone already dismissed Bro. Eddie’s chances of winning the Presidential race as close to nil, he bounces back into the limelight with a new sense of pride for delivering what no one expected. Well, a few days later, obviously still in Cloud 9 with his victorious Luneta political-cum-prayer rally, Bro. Eddie came to Cebu City and lo and behold, The Freeman reported that he only had some 1,500 to 2,000 people who attended his rally at the Plaza Independencia near the Cebu Port area.

Wait! Isn’t Metro Cebu the 2nd largest metropolis in the country, so logic would have it that if Bro. Eddie could muster a million supporters at the Luneta, he should have gotten a substantial number of supporters in Cebu? Well, this only goes to show that Bro. Eddie’s bailiwick is centered in Metro Manila and if he can get only 2,000 in Cebu, it just makes me wonder where he’d get the rest of the votes for him to win the Presidential race.

Then later on, he was supposed to address a Student’s Symposium at the Aznar Coliseum belonging to the Southwestern University (SWU). And as we gathered from The Freeman news on this incident it seems that when SWU president Frances Victoria Lumain found out that SWU Supreme Student Council president Moshee Maxilom didn’t secure a permit for the symposium, the SWU president ordered the event cancelled. It’s as simple as that!

Call it timely that Bro. Eddie arrived just in time the studes were getting out of the now cancelled event and yes, to the consternation of Bro. Eddie, security guards no longer allowed anyone including the JIL leader to go inside the Coliseum.