(MANILA) – The Pilipino Movement for Transformational Leadership (PMTL), bruited to have 10 million “committed” voters will participate in two of the three elections in the country for 2016.

The PMTL made up of Catholic , Protestant and Born-Again organizations and its independent campaign organization called “People’s Choice” have designed a “Gabay Kristo” matrix to make a shortlist of  anointed candidates for election.

Endorsed by the Catholic hierarchy through the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines headed by Msgr Socrates Villegas, the group will be involved in the presidential elections (May 7,2016) and the barangay elections in (October 16, 2016) but  not in the SK elections also set in October.

The barangay is said to be the smallest government unit in the country with over 42,000 barangays effectively becoming the unit closest government entity  dealing with  the management of the community. Barangay elections have been notoriously known for its partisanship, violence and vote buying.

Rivalry among the candidates is so  intense such that the entry of this church group will hopefully add more rhyme and reason to the electoral exercise.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

According to Lead Convenor and one of the spokespersons of the PMTL, Atty Alex Lacson – by the first week of March , the group will have (2) candidates for president (1) candidate for vice president and (8) for senators.  The political campaign group “People’s Choice” will then take-over and engage in the active campaign for the selected candidates.

The selected candidates, in turn, will forge a covenant with the  group that they  will ion turn honor time-tested principles of good governance under purely Christian principles once in office.

As of now, the two vice presidential “chosen ones” are Rep Leni Robredo and Jesus Zosimo Paredes but only one of them will  eventually be the official candidate of the 10-million Christian voters.

Atty Lacson explained to The Chronicle  that two names for president, senator Grace Poe and former DILG chief Mar Roxas, will remain in the list till election time since there is a pending “disqualification” case against senator Poe in the Supreme Court. ” We wanted to have an alternate  just in case senator Poe is disqualified ” Atty Lacson said.

Currently, there are 15 shortlisted names for senators and will be whittled down to just 8 on the first week of March. Many of them are non-traditional politicians.

Cautioned that the effort can flounder and not have its candidates elected -Lacson said “we are prepared as this is just the first try. We will not stop with this elections but this will be a campaign for good servant leaders for the entire future.”

In fact, he said, the group will do the same mechanism for the 2019 local elections for governors, congressmen and others plus 12 senators indicating the movement is here to stay.

SOME MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS

Among others, these are the known members of the PMTL , all Christian-based organizations, namely, Couples for Christ (CFC),  Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP),  Ligaya ng Panginoon (LNP),  Christian Family Movement (CFM),  Federation of Transparochial  Charismatic Communities (FTCC, BLD/Servant Leaders (Bukas Loob ng Diyos), Prayer Warriors,  Philippine Alliance of Ex-Seminarians (PAX),  Dilaab Movement, Defensores Fidei, Light of Jesus (LOJ) Community.

Among the Protestant and Evangelical Organizations  are Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC),  National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP),  United Churches Council of the Philippines (UCCP),  Philippine Jesus Movement (PJM),  Bible Mode,  Christian Bishops and Ministers Association of the Philippines (CBMAP),  Christian Patriots, Capitol Christian Leadership (CCL), Nameless Faceless Selfless Minsitry (NFS), Intercessors for the Philippines (IFP) and the United Methodist Church .

They will still form other alliances  with like-minded groups working “together in unity to achieve our common goal,”

If ever, this will be the biggest step of the church , other than the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) to get involved institutionally  in a mundane exercise such a political election.  They believe participation in community welfare tasks is embedded in basic Christian doctrines. (By BINGO P. DEJARESCO III)