Eddie Villanueva

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Eduardo "Eddie" Villanueva
caption = Bro. Eddie Villanueva
birth_date = birth date and age|1946|10|6
birth_place = Bocaue, Bulacan, Philippines
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Televangelist
owner of
ZOE Broadcasting Network
spouse = Adoracion "Dory" Villanueva
parents =
children = Eduardo Villanueva (born October 6, 1946) is a religious and political leader in the Philippines. He was a presidential candidate in the 2004 Philippine election. He lost the election to incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and placed last in a field of five candidates, with 6.2% of the vote.

He is the owner and chairman of ZOE Broadcasting Network, a commercial TV station currently operated by GMA Network through Quality TeleVision (QTV). He is also the owner and president of "Jesus Is Lord Colleges Foundation Inc. "(JILCF), a Christian school in Bocaue, Bulacan.

Biography

Brother Eduardo "Eddie" Villanueva, founder of Jesus Is Lord Church, was born in Bocaue, Bulacan, on October 6, 1946. He is married to Adoracion "Dory" Villanueva and they have four children. His eldest son, Eduardo "Jon-Jon" Villanueva, Jr. lost when he ran for mayor in his hometown of Bocaue, Bulacan in 2004 but won in the May 2007 elections. His daughter, Joni Villanueva is a Christian singer and TV host. His other son Joel Villanueva, representing the CIBAC party list, is the fifth richest party-list congressman with a net worth of P18.3 million. [ [http://dynamic2.philonline.com/pdf_may_2006/pdf_may18_2006.pdf Party List Representatives among richest lawmakers, Manila Standard Today] ]

In 1969, he graduated with a degree in Commerce, majoring in Economics, from the Philippine College of Commerce, which has since been renamed as the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

He took up law at the University of the Philippines but "was sidelined by activism and never had time to take the bar [examination] ."

He worked as a full-time faculty member in the Economics and Finance Department of PCC until 1972. He then worked as the export manager of Maran Export Industries in 1973 and from 1976 to 1977, he was the general manager of the Agape Trading Co. He returned to PUP in 1978 as a part-time professor.

In 1978, Villanueva founded the Jesus is Lord Church formerly named Jesus is Lord Fellowship, which started with just eight members. He now claims that JIL now has some seven million members with branches in Asia, Europe and North America.

Brother Eddie received the Gintong Ama (Golden Father) award for Socio-Civic/Religious Sector from the Golden Mother and Father Foundation in June 1996. He was also voted Pastor of the Year in a 1998 worldwide search conducted by Dr. George Otis' High Adventure Ministries. The Ministries broadcasts the "Voice of Hope" program in 72 countries.

Villanueva was ordained Minister of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in 1979 by the California-based Victory in Christ Church and International Ministries. He has also been conferred the office of Episcopacy by the Sectarian Body of Christ in the Philippines in April 1996.

In February 2001, Brother Eddie received the EDSA People Power Freedom Award for ZOE TV 11 for its fair coverage of the People Power II movement. He founded and owns ZOE Broadcasting Network Inc. and operates Channel 11 on Filipino television. Bro. Eddie hosts three ZOE programs, "Diyos at Bayan", PJM (Philippines for Jesus Movement) Forum and "Jesus The Healer".

Controversies

Unfulfilled Prophecies

Villanueva claims to be a prophet of God and has issued specific prophecies that he claims were prophetic visions from God. His prophecies mainly deal with God's grand plan for the Filipino nation. One of the current prophecies however, was the declaration that the Philippines will become "the America of Asia in 2010."

In 1998, The Philippines for Jesus Movement (PJM), an umbrella organization of more than 10,000 Protestant churches or about 3 million members of which Villanueva is the Chairman of the board had declared Jose de Venecia as the "God-mandated next president of the Philippines." They said that de Venecia "was ordained by the Divine providence to fulfill his vision for the Philippines as a great nation of God."

"The glorious prophetic vision of God for the Philippines is for it to become prosperous and we cannot turn traitor to God’s calling and mandate," said Villanueva. [Manila Standard March 25, 1998] The prophecy went unfulfilled when de Venecia lost to former President Joseph Estrada.

Estafa Case

In October 2005, an arrest warrant had been issued against Villanueva on charges of estafa (swindling) filed by businessman Benito Araneta in April 2005. The case dates back to March 2001 when Villanueva and his Zoe Broadcasting Network Inc. entered into an agreement with Araneta’s Entertainment Network Ltd (EnterNet) for the operation of Channel 11. Under the agreement, Zoe Broadcasting was to turn over to EnterNet the management, programming and marketing of the TV station.

In accordance with the agreement, Araneta paid Villanueva P15 million in two checks dated March 29 and August 2001. To his dismay, Araneta, after making the payments, found out that Villanueva had already entered into a previous commitment to sell or lease air time of Channel 11 to Vintage TV Corp. owned by Carlos “Bobong” Velez for the period covering 2000 to 2015. The flabbergasted businessman also found out that for that arrangement, Velez had already paid Bro. Eddie some P20 million.

To Araneta, it was obvious that he had been duped into a contract that had already been committed to another party. On this basis, he sued Villanueva for estafa (swindling), demanding the return of the P15 million he had advanced. [ [http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=felMaragay_oct15_2005 Manila Standard Today - Fel Maragay ] ]

When the arrest had been made public after Villanueva's refusal to pay the P40,000 bail set by the court, he cried political harassment claiming that the case filed against him by Araneta who is the first cousin of President Arroyo's husband, is a reprisal for joining the opposition-led call for Arroyo’s resignation over accusations of cheating in the 2004 presidential election. Arroyo and her husband denied any involvement in the case and Araneta had denied that the charge was politically-motivated. [ [http://news.inq7.net/common/print.php?index=1&story_id=61830&site_id=26 Case vs Bro. Eddie not politically motivated] ]

The Justice Department withdrew the arrest order after granting Villanueva’s request for a review of the case.

on's Murder Case

In May 2007, Villanueva's son, Eduardo 'Jonjon ' Villanueva Jr., who was running for mayor in Bocaue, Bulacan, was charged with murder and obstruction of justice by the Department of Justice after a soldier was killed in a shootout involving the supporters of Villanueva and a group of soldiers. [http://www.gmanews.tv/story/41626/AFP-pushes-murder-raps-vs-Villanueva-son] On October 3, 2007, Eduardo Jose “"Jon-Jon"” Villanueva Jr. and other associates, including a certain Francisco Verdi Villa, were indicted per a resolution filed by State Prosecutor Geronimo Sy. The criminal case will be filed with the Regional Trial Court of Bulacan. [ [http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2007/oct/04/yehey/top_stories/20071004top5.html Manila Times, Son of JIL’s Bro. Eddie indicted] ]

2004 Presidential Bid

Villanueva's campaign in the 2004 Philippine presidential election never went unnoticed because he was the only candidate with a very strong religious identity as he is, as noted above, the founder and senior bishop of the Jesus Is Lord International, an independent pentecostal group that has branches in Asia, Europe, and America. He campaigns on the claim that he is the only moral candidate for president, and that he has a program to eradicate corruption and restore morality in government. His campaigns carried both religious and political colors with the "V" finger sign representing Dios at Bayan (God and Nation).

He was the only presidential candidate who was claimed to have gathered an audience of millions in one place, making his campaign subject to arguments as to just what was the exact number of person who attended. In his Quirino grandstand campaign, his supporters claimed that they reached 3 million, but the conservative estimates of the police and security forces was only 600 thousand. This was followed by another major political rally at Ayala Avenue in Makati City where his supporters claimed the crowd reached 100,000 but the policemen estimated it to be only 10,000. His last grand campaign was done four days before the election at the Luneta Park and they claimed they reached five million in the crowd, but the national television news programs covered the event saying the crowd reached million (without giving the exact unit).

Despite the polls done by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia showing him trailing among the four contenders [ [http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/ht/ht004193.htm Column: Sws, Pulse Asia Agree On Gma ] ] , Villanueva was confident that he would win the elections saying that "this is why we do not believe in the surveys of the two companies that are usually commissioned by political parties here — because the more than three million human bodies (at my rally) can indicate the real results of the survey." [ [http://www.newsflash.org/2004/02/pe/pe003154.htm Bro. Eddie: Rp Reborn After Polls ] ]

He has also spoken out against bloc voting by religious groups in response to the reported endorsements by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) and the Catholic charismatic El Shaddai movement of President Arroyo.

He was the only presidential candidate who did not spend much during his campaigns as most, if not all of the campaign materials, including television advertisements were donated by his followers. His campaigns called for an alternative leadership, which he called righteous leadership based on a certain Biblical passage that says, "Righteousness exalts a nation."

Because of his religious identity he was accused of running for the presidency because of his religious interest and detractors stated that if elected his main goal would be converting the nation to Pentecostalism, a charge unlikely to be ignored in the Philippines, the third-largest Roman Catholic country in the world. Stories of campaign sermons being made against Villanueva by prominent leaders of major religious groups like the Iglesia Ni Cristo, El Shaddai, and even the Roman Catholic Church were also spread at that time, although proof of the existence of such sermons occurring to any wide extent was never offered.

Villanueva's campaigns were marked with persuasion, praying, spontaneity of words, crowd singing (a carry over of the pentecostals' Praise & Worship practice) and celebrity supporters. Among them were Connie Reyes, Karla Martinez, Piolo Pascual, Gary Valenciano, Donita Rose, Yoyoy Villame, Nonoy Zuniga, Jeremias Jangad, Christian Bautista, and many others.

These elements made his campaign distinct from the others, but certainly did not translate into much success at the ballot box.

A former supporter of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, he has turned into one of her most rabid critics after the election. Until now, he remains to be one of the visible figures of the opposition side, who calls for the resignation of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for alleged election fraud and corruption. He, along with his son Joel, a party list representative, are dubbed by some detractors as "selfish" and "sore losers", who use their followers for selfish interests. His solid supporters of course deny such accusation.

ee also

*Philippine general election, 2004

References

External links

* [http://www.bangonpilipinas.net Bro. Eddie Villanueva for President 2004]