Velarde's Presidential Candidacy: The Real McCoy

Newspapers today headlined the inauguration of El Shaddai leader's latest project---a P 1 billion peso church in his lot in Paranaque. The church, which is billed as the "biggest place of worship and prayers in Asia" can accommodate 15 to 25,000 worshippers, still not enough to accommodate the weekly 300,000 devotees that usually attend El Shaddai worship services.

Now the shocking part---El Shaddai's leader Bro. Mike Velarde intimated his desire to run for the presidency in 2010. Quite a dream he says since as a kid, he always dreamt of becoming president. Many political observers doubt the sincerity of Velarde, since he knows for a fact that he does not have the numbers to back his campaign.

The dead giveaway was Velarde's statement saying that should he become president, he'll merge the church and the state---an obvious joke. Velarde is no fool, yet he's quite a joker. He knows that that's impossible.

Velarde's pronouncement is obviously a bait meant to increase his waning political stock. Velarde is an astute politician. He knows that when he announces his candidacy, many political leaders would obviously try to negotiate his way out of it.

One such politician is Joseph Estrada who said that he'll talk with Velarde today to convince him to give way. Of course, Velarde will try to appear coy and will try to prolong negotiations, of course in exchange of something.

Everyone knows that Senator Manny Villar already got Velarde's support, way ahead of the others. They teamed up together in that C-5 road controversy. Remember that Velarde's company, Amvel Properties, got a 1 billion peso payment for the right-of-way and the one who masterminded that was no other than Senator Manny Villar.

So, what's the game plan for Velarde? First, that pronouncement was meant as a bait, a lure for other political parties to negotiate terms with him. Second, Velarde's campaign machinery would just be deemed as a "wrecking crew" meant to dilute the opposition ranks. We know that Velarde's constituency is the same as those of Erap's and Velarde's entry into the race would surely affect on-going organizing efforts.