Olongapo City councilor John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes may be the first presidential candidate running without the support of his political family, the Gordons. The Gordons will support de los Reyes' uncle, presidential aspirant Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon, brother of his mother Barbara Gordon.
 
As of posting time, however, Sen. Gordon has not made a final decision on whether to run for president or just seek a second term as senator.
 
In a Probe Profiles interview with Cheche Lazaro, de los Reyes, age,  said that the “biggest irony” in his life is to be part of a political dynasty and being vehemently against it. The Gordons are popular in Olongapo City and Zambales and are a powerful political family.
 
“Pang-iipit sa di-kakampi ng pamilya, nabibiyayaan lamang yung malapit sa partido at pamilya (Intimidating those against the family, blessing only those close to the party and the family)” is what de Los Reyes abhors about political dynasties.
 
But he said that he owes to the Gordons his skills in interacting with people from all walks of life because he was immersed in campaigning and the political field even at a tender age. He admired, in the beginning, the contribution of the Gordons to Olongapo City and Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
 
‘Political family,’ machinery and platforms
 
De los Reyes will be running with the support of his "political family,” the Ang Kapatiran Party.
 
He said that the party will not bank on traditional, moneyed-politics machinery but relying on one that is driven by “faith and conscience.”
 
Their platforms have spiritual, moral, social and economic dimensions. These are indicated in the party’s “Passport to a New Philippines,” or their constitution wherein all members have to lead in a morally correct way to serve the Philippines better.
 
Should de los Reyes win as President in the 2010 elections, he would try his best to put into action the party’s platforms, some of which are:

• Abolish all forms of gambling
• Abolish death penalty
• Abolish the pork barrel system
• Prohibiting the selling and usage of firearms in public places
• Not allowing the use of heavily-tinted vehicles

 
2007, 1995 Elections
 
De los Reyes won in his bid for councilor in 2007. He ran as a guest candidate of the Gordon family’s political party but was still under the Ang Kapatiran party.
 
The reason why he obliged to be a guest candidate of his family party: “They talked to me. They told me that since I am part of the family, I could not campaign separately.”
 
Since he is part of the family’s campaign, “I was a guest candidate so I rode on their machinery.”
 
His uncle, Olongapo City Mayor James Gordon, said that de los Reyes won “because of the family, because of the people who are Gordonista.”
 
De los Reyes ran in 1995, when he was only 25 years old, under the Nacionalista Party with his family members, and won as councilor of Olongapo City. He briefly retired from politics after his first term to help Ang Kapatiran be a Comelec-approved national political party. He was disappointed with his previous party for not having clear platforms and principles.
 
De los was the only one who won out of the 30 Ang Kapatiran party members who ran in different local and national positions in the 2007 elections.
 
Martin Bautista, Jesus Paredes and Adrian Sison tried to vie for seats in the Senate—to no avail.
 
According to the Commission on Elections’ elections results, Bautista, Paredes and Adrian garnered 761,165, 713,817 and 402,331 votes respectively.
 
Their votes totaled 1.8 million, which is not even 1% of the 29.7 million who voted during that election. But de los Reyes said that this shows that some Filipinos are ready for a [incomplete sentence]
 
Not even 1%
 
Following the trend of barely hitting1% in the polls, de los Reyes’ rating is 0.1% in the July 28-August 10, 2009 Pulse Asia Survey. His name was included in the list of first-choice presidential preferences. This was almost 3 months after he formally announced his bid for candidacy.
 
He said that this is a “good sign” because he is not a national figure, like Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, but still got votes. Teodoro got only 2% in that poll despite his television appearances.
 
In another series of surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations, de los Reyes was not among the 1,000 plus respondents’ top three choices for possible leaders to succeed President Arroyo in 2010.
 
The virtual unknown is against putting up tarpaulins with names and faces of politicians on projects they finished. How would he be known? He told Probe host Cheche Lazaro that there is ample time in the months allotted for campaigning to be known.
 
Faithful man
 
His uncle James said that he has nothing against de los Reyes’ political party, but questions whether the party’s seemingly impossible principles could be achieved.
 
“It is like a Utopia,” he said.
 
De los Reyes was pushed into politics by his grandmother Amelia Gordon, first woman mayor of Olongapo City but he originally wanted to be a priest. He graduated from the University of Steubenville in Ohio with a degree in theology.
 
He said in a forum organized by the Global Filipino Nation last April 2009 that his faith could not be dismissed in making political decisions. Social theology, wherein preferential option for the poor should be put to heart by politicians, means they should live simply and be sensitive to the needs of their constituents.
 
The devout Catholic is against abortion and the reproductive health bill pending in Congress. He believes that the use of contraceptives and birth control pills alters the natural developments in a woman’s body, he said in a press conference organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines .
 
When the Reproductive Health Code was passed by the majority in the Olongapo City Council in 2007, de los Reyes was the only one who cast a vote against the ordinance because it promoted modern and artificial contraceptives and family planning methods using public funds.
 
He said what could be done is to educate couples on the responsibilities they have to face when they have children.
 
If he should be president, his strong Catholic faith might turn off voters from Muslim Mindanao and might be an obstacle in his plan to restore peace in his first 100 days in office.
 
But he said that he plans to build a bridge of peace between Mindanao and the rest of the country: “We will put real leaders that truly represent the people in Mindanao so they can communicate the real problems of the Mindanaoans.”

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Sources:
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/
http://angkapatiranparty.org/
http://www.comelec.gov.ph/
The writers’ notes on various forums attended