"Since Bro. Eli knew that the Seventh Day Adventists did not eat pork, when he prepares a meal with pork for the panel, he would prepare another menu for Bert Valinton, who accused him of being a minister of Satan during his appearance in the panel."

Loving an enemy is one of the hardest things to do. In the Bible, our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples to love their enemies and pray for those that persecute them. These acts are very hard to do if we don’t have faith and we do not believe the Holy Scriptures. Instead of loving an enemy and praying for him, someone may do otherwise. For most of us, having compassion to an adversary is a very difficult thing to do but to Bro. Eli Soriano, it is easy.

In the 1980s, Bro. Eli became a panelist in a widely patronized religious program hosted by Mr. Manolo Favis over DZBB, 594 KHz. The program was titled ‘Dis is Manolo and His Genius Family. Mr. Favis coined the word “GENIUS” from God Eternal News in Universal Salvation. There were many other panelists in that program, who were patiently waiting for their turn to speak for a few minutes over the radio every Sunday night from 9:00 o’clock in the evening to 12:00 o’clock midnight.

When Bro. Eli came through the initiative of the late Bro. Manuel Bacosa, it was clearly noticed that he was not accepted by the group who were mostly pastors, ministers and leaders of their own religious groups. As I can recall, some of the panelists were Bert Valinton and Domingo Filomeno of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Manuel Manzanilla of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Agustin Tabuñar of the Iglesia Spiritista, Onnie Santiago of the Iglesia ng Dios, Jess Patricio of the Roman Catholic Church, Tydee Toloui of the Baha’i Faith, Miguel Inciong of the Iglesia ng Espiritu Santo, Severino Taril, a devoted follower of Dr. Jose Rizal, Romulo Aldana, Mr. Khempis, Resty Policarpio, Aldon Tagumpay, Rudy Natividad and many others, whose names I cannot remember now.

On that unforgettable Sunday night, Bro. Eli’s captivating voice was first heard over DZBB. We were all excited to hear him. One of the panelists accused him of being a minister of the devil. That was Bert Valinton of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He said that Bro. Eli was of Satan and that he was teaching doctrines of the devil. That was only Bro. Eli’s first time in that program. I could not sleep that night because of anger. I could not accept that Bro. Eli Soriano is of the devil. Never!

All of us who heard Valinton’s accusation felt the same. We were really angry at him at that moment. We waited for Bro. Eli’s return and we listened to his stories while he was at DZBB. He told us many things that happened during his stay there. The next Sunday, we accompanied Bro. Eli to DZBB. We were all interested to see the members of the GENIUS family particularly that Bert Valinton who accused Bro. Eli of being a minister of the devil. We had seen them all.

From then on we accompanied Bro. Eli every time he went to DZBB to join the program. Later, not only Bert Valinton accused him of being a minister of the devil but almost all of them. They were seriously angry at Bro. Eli because they were hurt every time he read the scriptures. Their wrong doctrines were exposed over the air lanes and the people discovered their fallacies.

Guided by scriptural ethics, Bro. Eli, during his many years of stay in that program, made it a point that every Sunday night he would bring food for all the members of the panel. Sometimes, he was the one cooking, bringing utensils, dinner ware and all the ingredients for the menu that Bro. Eli would cook to feed those people who were saying all manner of evil against him on the air. We were cooking at the sidewalk beside the studio of Channel 7 along Timog Avenue. Bro. Eli was the one supervising the preparation of food. At exactly 11:00 o’clock in the evening we were serving them with delicious hot meal. If there’s no way that we could cook, Bro. Eli was buying from a nearby fast food restaurant for them.

Since Bro. Eli knew that the Seventh Day Adventists did not eat pork, when he prepares a meal with pork for the panel, he would prepare another menu for Bert Valinton, who accused him of being a minister of Satan during his appearance in the panel. Bro. Eli respects the faith of others and he would not deceptively serve them food that they avoided. That’s how Bro. Eli dealt with his adversaries at DZBB.

Truly, if you were not of God, you would not do that. It was strange for an enemy to feed his enemy, as it was unexpected for an adversary to show compassion to his adversary. Most probably the natural reaction of a person who was hurt by someone is to fight back. An enemy would not feed his enemy but probably poison him instead. Bro. Eli had proven to be a real man of God. What he did to those people for many years proved that he was a man of truth. The Scriptures tell us to feed our enemies when they are hungry and give them something to drink when they are thirsty. That is what Bro. Eli is teaching and doing until now.

Later on Bro. Eli became Manolo Favis’s favorite panelist because every time he answers he was citing biblical verses unlike others who were just replying with their own thinking and imagination. Bro. Eli has proven himself worthy of trust and admiration of the listeners. All manner of questions were being asked of him, which he biblically answered. People were requesting that their questions be answered specifically by Bro. Eli because they knew that no one would give a better answer than he did as was proven many times.

Before Bro. Eli joined the GENIUS family, Mr. Favis was hesitant in accepting live telephone questions. They were screening the questions first so that they can prepare for the answer. Sometimes the panelists were the ones making their own questions to be asked to them to make it appear that they were knowledgeable about the bible. But when Bro. Eli arrived, everything changed. They accepted live telephone calls and queries.

Manolo Favis had put Bro. Eli into so many tests and of course, he passed all of them with God’s help. And because of that, he was awarded, the “Most Outstanding Minister” award, an award that is being wished for by everyone in the panel. Bro. Eli obtained it for many consecutive years and after him, no one was ever awarded with the same award. Then time came that because of envy to Bro. Eli, some members of the panel did not show up anymore. Bro. Eli was given most of the time within the three hour program while they were only allotted few minutes to speak. Many people were requesting for Bro. Eli’s biblical answers to their questions. Every week the number of speakers were reduced until time came that Bro. Eli was left alone. Now, he is Manolo Favis’s favorite resource person.