Eddie Villanueva

Eduardo Cruz Villanueva (, born October 6, 1946), most commonly referred to as Bro. Eddie Villanueva or ECV, is an evangelist and founder, president and spiritual director of the Jesus Is Lord Church Worldwide (JILCW).

Villanueva was previously a communist, radical activist, and street parliamentarian. During the martial law regime under former President Ferdinand Marcos, he was imprisoned twice for fighting alongside the oppressed for their rights against land grabbing syndicates.

Villanueva is also the founder of the Philippines for Jesus Movement (PJM), which has more than forty bishops from different Christian churches nationwide as members.

Villanueva was a presidential candidate in the 2004 and 2010 Philippine elections and a senatorial candidate in the 2013 midterm Philippine elections, all as the standard bearer of the Bangon Pilipinas Party.

Villanueva is a radio-TV evangelist owning ZOE Broadcasting Network, a commercial television and radio broadcasting station which owns VHF Channel 11 (A2Z) and UHF Channel 33 (Light TV).

He is also the owner and founder of the Jesus Is Lord Colleges Foundation, Inc. (JILCF), a Christian school in Bocaue, Bulacan, where his late wife, Dr Adoracion Villanueva was the school president.

He is currently a member of the 19th Congress of the Philippines and has been a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress.

Early life Eduardo Cruz Villanueva was born on October 6, 1946, in Bocaue, Bulacan, to parents Joaquin Villanueva and Maria Cruz. Joaquin Villanueva was a former Olympic sprinter who represented the Philippines in the Far Eastern Games for four consecutive years in 1920s.

Education In 1969, Villanueva graduated with a degree in commerce, majoring in economics, from the Philippine College of Commerce (PCC), since renamed the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. He was immersed in both student and labor movements in the 1970s, joining the progressive segments of society which opposed Marcos' dictatorship. Villanueva also took up law at the University of the Philippines College of Law but was already into so much activism that he never had time to take the bar examination. During Martial law, he fought local landgrabbers in Bulacan and ended up being jailed twice for his political beliefs and participation in various mass actions.

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 PCC, now renamed, in 1978 as a part-time professor.

According to their church's website, Villanueva claimed to have "had a life-changing encounter with the Lord in 1973 while at the forefront of a leftist movement". At that time, he was also leading his family (and other families) in his home province of Bulacan in an uphill, protracted legal battle as he himself became a victim of a notorious land-grabbing syndicate. Five days after that "dramatic encounter with God", Villanueva was brought face to face with a miracle he could never forget: the land-grabbers were arrested and detained.

On October 5, 1978, Villanueva founded the JILCW formerly named Jesus Is Lord Fellowship, "which started with just 15 members from his Bible studies". In 2007, JIL stated it had "over five million members today in 18 cities in Metro Manila, 80 provinces in the Philippines and 60 countries in the world. Most members abroad are overseas Filipino workers and their families."

Political career 2004 presidential bid

Villanueva campaigned in the 2004 Philippine presidential election.

Despite the polls done by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia showing him trailing among the four contenders, 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."

2010 presidential bid

Villanueva ran again for the 2010 presidential election where he lost for the second time; he finished fifth out of nine presidential candidates with 1,125,878 votes or 3.12% of the total votes far from the winner, Benigno Aquino III.

On political dynasty and trapo politics When Villanueva was still a "bishop", he was asked about his family's position on political dynasties. Villanueva responded, “Political dynasty is not applicable to our family.” He cited their so-called “advocacy” as enough reason for their family to be exempted from being tagged as a political dynasty. He continued, “For example, you are a family, your parents raised you with love for the country. If you have five siblings and one of them served the country first, shouldn’t the other four have the right to serve?”

Villanueva allegedly approved the renaming after her daughter of Bocaue's municipal sports center, into the “Mayor Joni Villanueva Tugna Sports Center”, which Vera Files deemed inappropriate as public funds, not the Villanueva family's personal money, were used to build the center.

Personal life He married Dr. Adoracion "Dory" Villanueva (née Jose) on June 5, 1971, and their marriage lasted until her death on March 10, 2020. They have four children together. Their eldest son, Eduardo "Jon-Jon" Villanueva, Jr., is the incumbent mayor of Bocaue, Bulacan. Jonjon was charged with murder for allegedly ordering the shooting of a soldier of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the May 2007 elections. Their other son, Sen. Joel Villanueva, is currently a Senator, Senate Majority Leader, and became the youngest member of the House of Representatives when he took his oath of office as a representative of the CIBAC partylist on February 6, 2002. Their daughter, Joni Villanueva-Tugna, was a Christian singer, TV host, and Mayor of Bocaue from July 2016 until her death on May 28, 2020. She was married to Sherwin Tugna, a former CIBAC partylist representative. Their other daughter, Edelisha Jovi, is an educator.

Electoral history