WHO DESERVES YOUR VOTE? Exclusive Interview With JC Delos Reyes (First Of 5)

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Cosmo: Men believe they are the better gender. Will a male president make a better president? Why or why not?

Delos Reyes: No, I think so. In the traditional times, men go to battle and women guard the home. Men look for food and women take care of the home.


Cosmo: How will you empower and liberate our often-marginalized Moslem women?

Delos Reyes: We empower the Muslim women the way we empower the Christian women or any other sectors in the society. If there's a particular problem that cannot be solved by the existing laws [that the] government [should be keen] on protecting, [then we have to go] on looking for reasons to solve the particular problem. But it's not only for Muslim women, but for Christian women in Mindanao. However, [if] as President, for example, one Muslim woman is discriminated or perhaps persecuted, [then] protecting her [means] protecting all women.


Cosmo: Suppose you win the presidency and you know you've been doing a good job. Will you run for president again, knowing you'll do the country good?

Delos Reyes: I think real servanthood is [not about] lodging yourself in power. It's not staying there and showing the people a poll session security. Real leadership is honing the next generation leaders, allowing them to come to their own. That's what you call subsidiary or supplemental assistance, and that's empowerment as against codependency. When you think that you are needed, you begin to show the people that you're no longer needed. It is different [from] what you see. Let's go to this married couples or boys and girls in a relationship: I think it's all about empowering the other, and when you love the people, you serve them for a particular time.


Cosmo: ON TAX: Most of our girls always complain about the tax burden. How will you assure us that our hard-earned money will go to worthwhile projects?

Delos Reyes: You know, the only way to solve graft and corruption is if you have a president [who] is clean. I'm not; I don't want to say that I am clean, and I don't want to accuse other presidential candidates as being unclean. It's not only [about] being clean, but it's [also] appearing to be clean. I firmly believe the only way we can come back to our seat is by electing a president who doesn't have political debt.

So if, for example, a nobody [would run]. (I would presume that everybody running now has all the money in the world, all the popularity, with [all their] infomercials.) Electing [that] nobody who has no political debts [is] the reason we will be able to implement the reforms that are needed in this country. And we will be able to go after violators, those who commit graft and corruption.

So how will I assure the people that they will see where their taxes are going? We already have a platform, we wrote it down, and these are clear and specific aspirations. Remove political dynasties, [or] at least enact the law that has been long promised by the constitution to prohibit political dynasties. Remove the pork barrel system. Remove gambling. And so if we state this in our platform, then people have a basis [by] which we will be graded. Now, no other candidate or political party could say that because in their own political organizations, they have allowed dynasties, they are for the pork barrel, [and] they are for gambling. It's only at Kapatiran that I can assure the electorate that we will do this and start the reforms that you want; [that] your taxes will go to real projects that will benefit the people.


Cosmo: What is your personal contribution to reduce your carbon footprint?

Delos Reyes: We sort our trash and we plant trees. We only have one car actually. For our family, we only have one car. We compost for [our] vegetable garden.


Cosmo: How will you boost/revive mainstream cinema?

Delos Reyes: I think we revive our art by reviving our culture. Now if we revive our culture by reviving leisure for our people, [well], I believe walang culture 'pag walang leisure. It is leisure time when we enjoy culture. We have the time to draw, we have the time to mix. Art is the virtue of practicality and the beauty in making things, so kung wala tayong time e 'di walang culture, walang art. I would expound, well, first of all, to do what you need to restore the economy--so that our people would have enough to be able to [figure out] their day-to-day concerns, material concerns, [and] emotional concerns; I would expound leading someday. Ako, if [elected] president, I would lead with them the bureaucracy and the companies for the people. And the macro plan is [for] the particulars: to give incentives to the filmmaker to produce the best, particularly [in] the historical fields where they teach patriotism and nationalism. And that could easily be done by a president.

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