austraLasia #1852

Catholic priest - former aspirant to Salesian life - elected provincial Governor of Pampanga, Philippines

MANILA: 22nd May 2007 -- Pampanga is in central Luzon, north of Manila, part of the province bordering on Manila Bay. To outsiders the name 'Clark Field', former US Air Base, might mean more. In very recent provincial elections, Fr Ed Panlilio, 53 years of age, once an aspirant with the Salesians in Pampanga (he continued on through to Canlubang, then switched to the diocese), has won the local elections for governor and been declared the new governor of the province.  He campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket. His win makes him the first Catholic priest in Philippines history to win political office as governor.
    Salesians in the Philippines followed the election with interest - Fr Ed is recognised as one of the most zealous members of the diocesan clergy in Pampanga, highly regarded and loved as a parish priest.  He contacted his ecclesiastical superiors and apparently gained permission to campaign.  On 25th March he was given a temporary suspension from priestly duties to permit this.  Now that he has won the electoral race, and been congratulated, indeed, by the Chairman of the Episcopal Conference, his work will be cut out in the political field.  Maybe it's a canonical conundrum, however!
    'Among Ed' (Fr Ed), ran a campaign which took full advantage of the Filipinos' fascination with media, and his cause became a national event. Some have described his candidacy as a Pampanga version of People Power, not entirely without basis. He confronted money and patronage, having, in a sense neither.  He is a man of simple living. Catholics and others in the province who saw no other way of dealing with endemic corruption at high levels, urged him to run for office.
   GLOSSARY
conundrum: intrictae and difficult problem
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