MANILA, Philippines - Television evangelist Eduardo "Eddie" Villanueva will kick off his presidential bid Tuesday by unfurling what they claimed is the country’s “biggest flag.”

Villanueva and supporters, in unfurling the flat at the Luneta in Manila, said the unfurling is a symbolic gesture of a new Philippines.

“We are starting here in the country’s ‘Kilometer Zero’ as a sign of hope for a New Philippines. This year is the year of God’s favor for the Philippines,” Lyndon Caña, Bangon Pilipinas’ national campaign manager, said in an article on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines news site (www.cbcpnews.com).

Kilometer zero starts in Luneta, located at the heart of the country’s capital city of Manila.

Caña noted all distances in the country start their references to the kilometer marker in Luneta, the big flagpole west of the Rizal Monument where National Hero Jose Rizal was executed.

“We believe Filipinos are already awakened. We are all tired with old traditional politics. We see how traditional politics has brought our nation deeper into economic quagmire. We have not seen corruption and bad governance at their worse than in the recent years,” Caña said.

Villanueva's party cited a United Nations Development Programme report claiming expatriate businessmen perceive the Philippines as among the most corrupt in Asia.

It added the World Bank said 40-50% of the government’s annual budget or about P700-billion annually goes to the pockets of corrupt government officials.

“With the symbolic unfurling of the flag, we are declaring God’s blessings upon our nation. God said in the Good Book – Call to me and I will answer. I will deliver you from trouble and honor you,” said Caña.

He added that regardless of religious affiliation, whether Christian or Muslim, “Filipinos should not be ashamed to call on the Almighty God whose aid our very Constitution implores.”

The Philippine's biggest flag – measuring 180 meters x 92 meters – was first unfurled in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya on September 16, 2006.

Weighing 3.8 tons and costing almost P10 million, it was created by businesswoman Grace Galindez Gupana, a supporter of Bangon Pilipinas Party.

Gupana is a Guinness World Record-holder of several titles, including the World’s Biggest Flag – the Israeli Flag – unfurled in Gaza strip in Israel about the same time as the Philippine flag was unfurled again in Baguio City on June 12, 2008. - Frontline.PH

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