CALAMBA CITY, Philippines?Christian pastors here prayed over Bagumabayan presidential bet Senator Richard "Dick" Gordon and running mate Bayani Fernando, saying what the Philippines needs are transformational leaders to free the country from poverty.

"We need to have total transformation, we need to have 'transformers' as leaders, Lord," one of the pastors said, putting stress on the word transformers as he prayed over Gordon and Fernando in a meeting with church leaders here Monday evening.

Gordon and Fernando, until Tuesday, went on a two-day campaign trail in Laguna in a 10-wheel truck designed to look like "Optimus Prime," a character in the science fiction movie where the vehicle turns into a robot called a "Transformer," the term used to describe the two candidates.

"Lord, we ask for political favor upon Bayani Fernando as vice president and political favor upon our president, Dick Gordon," the pastor's prayer added.

Gordon kept his audience awake even until almost midnight with his subtle attacks against political opponents, who had lavish political machineries, used celebrity endorsers and allegedly paid for favorable survey results

"Lahat nababayaran. Pati ako binabayaran," (Everything can be bought. They were even trying to buy me) Gordon said. He earlier claimed Senator Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista party offered him money to withdraw his candidacy.

Gordon said that if he wins, he would raise the teachers' salary to P40,000 a month and replace students' books with Kindles, an electronic device that could store up to 9,000 e-books (electronic books), to improve the quality of education in the country.

"Wouldn't it be nice for the Philippines to be the first, at least this time, to use Kindles in schools?" Gordon said in Filipino.