A day in the life... of JC de los Reyes

MANILA, Philippines - At 3 a.m., Ang Kapatiran presidential bet JC de los Reyes is already awake, preparing for the campaign sorties scheduled for the day. In a borrowed condominium unit where he stays in Pasig City, he begins his day with a prayer. He meditates on a Bible passage he reads. That has always been the order of the day for him since the campaign started.

“I only get four to five hours of sleep every day,” he told editors and reporters of The STAR yesterday.

For breakfast, he eats oatmeal with sardines. For lunch and dinner, De los Reyes said he still eats “oatmeal with ulam (viand).”

At around 11 p.m., he ends his day with a glass of hot Milo chocolate drink. Then he prays before he sleeps. 

De los Reyes’ parents, Barbara Gordon (sister of presidential candidate Sen. Richard Gordon) and the late Sonny de los Reyes, were the founders of Bukas Loob sa Diyos (1981) and Serviam Covenant Community (1996), both Catholic charismatic communities.

De los Reyes entered priesthood in the early ‘90s. De los Reyes and I were schoolmates and housemates in UP Los Baños, and John-C left college (he was taking up AB Sociology) to become a priest because he felt it was his calling. He finished Theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio but never became a priest because he had “to go back to serving the country.” He became a councilor of Olongapo City instead.

At UPLB, De los Reyes would drive around in a vintage malachite green Mercedes-Benz whose air-conditioning was always malfunctioning. He was always kind enough to drive his friends to their classes, and to their respective dormitories. Almost every week, he would bring his friends a box of cream puffs, one of the best sellers of Barbara’s, the restaurant his family owns. De los Reyes was always a joyful giver.

“I still live a simple life – with just one car for my wife and our children,” he said. Ang Kapatiran party, he said, provides everything he needs to move around on the campaign.

On the road, De los Reyes is very particular about following traffic rules. I remember catching a ride with De los Reyes going to Baguio City for our semester-ending respite, and we would always arrive about an hour after the others because De los Reyes would obey traffic rules, even stopping when he anticipated that the green light would turn yellow.

De los Reyes told The STAR he is not in favor of gay rights and gay marriage. But in college, he defended his gay friends who were being discriminated against by fraternity men and other members of fundamental religious groups. At one point, he even supported his gay friends at UPLB in a beauty contest. To this day, he even remembers the title of the competition – Super Ultra Mega Model.

Now that he is in the thick of the campaign, De los Reyes said he does not waste time. “In the car, I have a tape recorder where I record what I read in the papers and magazines like quotable quotes, statistics, passages and what other candidates say. Then I play back the tape, listen to it within the day,” he said.

His day, he said, is also filled with radio interviews. On a provincial sortie, he always hits first the public market. He admits he blushes when he hears comments like, “Ang bata mo naman (You’re so young).”

De los Reyes was born on Feb. 14, 1970. He used to give roses to his housemates in college during his birthday. 

De los Reyes admitted he misses his Olongapo-based family because he rarely sees them now. He makes a point to call them, but not every day “because my daughter Barbara cries every time she talks to me on the phone.”

De los Reyes is married to Dunia Valenzuela, a Filipino-Brazilian. They have three children – Gabriel, 11; Santiago, nine; and Barbara, seven.