The reason is that there is nothing bigger than the candidates themselves. Even the parties to which the ones who would run for president attach themselves are essentially parties that are limited exclusively to their few friends and supporters.

One mayor used to call these political groupings "birthday parties" since the ones in it were only the friends and supporters of a particular candidate. These parties are conveniences that candidates create for themselves and whose only purpose is to push their candidacy. Thus, they stand for no great idea or value and have no commitments to anything, not even to the country.

The present crop of candidates is composed of ho-hum politicians who will probably be no different from all the presidents that we have had.

The opposition presently has too many aspirants for the office and there is just no mechanism to sort out who would be a better candidate. What will work to winnow out the also-rans? Probably nothing. Remember that the last time that a presidential candidate was chosen in an honest-to-goodness convention, the loser (who had sworn on a stack of Bibles to support the winner) promptly set up his own party. Had he lost, that would have convinced the politicians that running under the established party’s banner is the path to the presidency. Unfortunately, the one who won was the candidate who went back on his word to support the winner.

Thus, what has been established is that parties do not really count; conventions are meaningless and that it is all about personality and money that will purchase a victory for one’s self.

Good luck to all those who want to be president. What I hope each of them will do is to ask himself how different his rule will be from that of the present dispensation. If all that they can offer is whatever Gloria is now doing with the only exception being that Gloria is not the one who will be doing the doing, then, I respectfully suggest for him to perform a heroic service to this country by forgetting his presidential ambitions.

Clearly, anyone who thinks that changing Gloria will solve our problems has not done as thorough study of this country and its problems as he should have.

***

I like the idea that in Cebu City, the Pro "Quality Life" Training and Development, Inc. (Q Life) is defying the Catholic Church by offering free "No Scalpel Vasectomy" (NSV).

The Church is up in arms against Q Life. According to the fanatics, vasectomy is not in harmony with God’s law since it prevents the conception of children. The head of the Cebu Anti-Indecency Board (CAIB) insists that vasectomy will encourage husbands to be unfaithful since there is no longer any possibility that he can have children.

Q Life maintains, however, "it is voluntary. We will fully inform them of the details of NSV to dispel misconceptions."

That NSV will also prevent "misconceptions" is a given and is really the main point to having a vasectomy. Q Life offers this to those who want no more additional children. The sad reality about our population explosion is that more of the children are being born into extreme poverty that deprives them of any sort of future in this material world.

To my mind, this – having so many children that no one can care for them – is definitely not any part of whatever plans God had when he created man..

***

I am glad that "Among Ed" (this is the Kapampangan for "Father Ed"), the governor of Pampanga, is getting support even from overseas. He is certainly not getting that kind of support or any real support from his mayors and the provincial board led by his vice governor who was an ally of the jueteng lords who backed a losing gubernatorial candidate in 2007.

A hundred OFW organizations have promised support for Gov. Ed Panlilio’s "ministry of politics and governance."

Leaders of Global Filipino Nation (GFN), which is an organization of Pinoys abroad, came home to visit the Pampanga provincial capitol just to tell the governor that they planned to "review, refine and adopt the ‘Panlilio model’ wherein a new credible leader has been put in office based on the people’s support and resources" and talk about it at an international conference that will be held in Manila in May.

Victor Barrios, GFN convener and chairman, says: "Among Ed’s saga sends a message of good governance and the possibilities for changes. We want this replicated all over the country. It’s like St. Paul spreading the gospel.

"His good governance runs on the same road as that we’re trying to tread. We are linking up because we know he’s besieged by elements who resist change because of their special interests."

I am glad that the governor is getting some support. I can only hope that he will be getting even more support even if most of it seems to be coming from outside his province.

The governor says: "In six months, I have not sacrificed my convictions as a priest and as a public official."

It isn’t rare that one’s convictions, if they do not serve the politics of the moment, can actually destroy a budding political career. Too bad that our people generally can support a good man during an election campaign but are generally reluctant to continue that support once the person is in office. Most regard those in office to be unapproachable and uncaring. I realize that "Among Ed" is not aloof and uncaring but the people generally do not know that.

***

The news that a disease-carrying mosquito bit a 15-year-old Australian teenager during a Christmas holiday with her family in the Philippines and, because of that, she died of dengue fever when she got back to Australia is familiar to me.

My brother Jim, who has migrated to Australia, was also stricken by what his doctors eventually called "dengu fever," after being initially puzzled by what the patient had. Luckily some of the nurses were Pinays and they immediately knew what was wrong with him.