JIL’s Bro. Eddie to run as party-list nominee

Evangelist Bro. Eddie Villanueva of the Jesus is Lord (JIL) movement is the first nominee of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) that he founded.

An also-ran in the 2004 and 2010 presidential elections, Villanueva led a march to the Commission on Elections main office last Wednesday, where his group filed its certificate of candidacy for the May 2019 polls.

“I’m here in front of you to accept the challenge to serve the nation. Continue and enhance the fight against corruption and push for clean and honest administration in and out of Congress,” he told his supporters.

Villanueva, father of Sen. Joel Villanueva, said CIBAC would continue to be the fiscalizer of the government.

He was accompanied by CIBAC party-list Rep. Sherwin Tugna, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on suffrage and electoral reforms now on his third and last term as congressman.

CIBAC had produced several congressmen in the past, among them Villanueva’s son Joel (who also served as head of the Techical Education and Skills Development Authority during the Aquino administration), lawyers Tugna and Cinchona Gonzales and Kim Bernardo-Lokin, a former newscaster of ABS-CBN.

CIBAC’s current second nominee is Domingo Rivera, third nominee is lawyer Lyndon Caña, fourth nominee is lawyer Armi Jane Borje, while fifth is Stanley Clyde Flores.

In the current 17th Congress, CIBAC party-List had authored and co-authored 131 bills and resolutions, with 11 bills enacted into law.

Among the priority measures of CIBAC were: AntiGraft and Corrupt Practices Information and Education Act, Barangay Anti-Hakot Bill and Freedom of Information Act.

CIBAC was also instrumental in the passage of the Anti-Red Tape Act, Government Procurement Reform Act and Ease of Doing Business Act.

CIBAC has been represented in the House of Representatives since the 12th Congress in 2001 up to the present.