The unfolding impulse of politics that Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. is expecting to come from the youths and more intelligent voters to bring him to the presidency may be correct – but only partly.

Mostly, it will come from himself being distinct and different from the rest of the crowd of “presidentiables” and political adversaries.

Unlike all the others to whom politics seems a never ending game, Teodoro brings seriousness to his campaign both in manners and in his utterances, defining our times and circumstances.

To be sure, while others proceed in their campaigns mesmerized by their own superficial accommodation of what they consider to be the public good, Teodoro campaigns “true to character, showing who he is and what he stands for.”

He talks straight and his vision of government is adequately clear and measured.

“The highest office of the land,” he declared, “calls upon us to apply the highest standard of selection – not genetics, not wealth, not even popularity – just good old-fashioned virtues for which we selected our presidents in the past and made them heroes in our national history.”

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As the political campaign progresses, a lot of avowals and repudiations are filling up media spaces with the corresponding denials and assertions by the concerned parties.

Needless to say, they are the wrangles that convulse the politics of the country, certainly dismaying to watch, particularly ideas that debase values rooted in our cultural experience.

What they do has larger consequences to the depth and breadth of our political predicaments.

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Curiously, even the Church has reportedly been concerned with the current political development.

The other day, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines admonished its clergies not to engage in partisan politics.

The warning was issued after reports circulated that certain Catholic bishops publicly endorsed a presidential aspirant for the May 10 polls.

CBCP President Nereo Odchimar warned against public endorsement of any candidates, although he said “the Church must not abandon its competence in passing moral judgment.”

Which means, from all indications, that priests can guide in the choice of the country’s leaders. That could be worse than mere endorsement.

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Up to this late hour, certain sector, in particular the National Democratic Institute’s international delegation, continues to entertain doubts over the viability of the automated election this coming May.

Jamie Metzl, NDI delegate to the Philippines, while saying the delegation did not mean to grade the country’s electoral system, expressed worries on the run-up to the automated polls.

The visit of the NDI delegation was in response to the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation, said to have been launched at the United Nations and endorsed by the NDI and 35 other international organizations.

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Well, now that Kris Aquino has joined Noynoy in his presidential entourage, how will his rival candidates handle it?

By the way, is it good or bad ?

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)