Wala naminaw sa Paminaw Mindanao

Unlike some of my friends who went to HCDC Gym to attend Paminaw Mindanao, a presidential forum on Mindanao, I was able to secure a white ticket, that which allowed me sit in the chairs below, among the important and not-so important people, not in the bleachers above.

Since I don't have a laptop to document all that happened there, I just used my cp and saved what I wrote in the outbox. Here goes:

• "Forum, paminaw mindnanao. 4 came. Gbo, jc, perlas, bro. Edie. jc was late.


• "Startd with a prayr from tri.people."


• "Gibo, cutlre, devt, and securty."

From there, I stopped typing. By the time Gibo laid out his plan for Mindanao----he said there is a need for a paradigm shift, a one-size-fits-all approach to Mindanao won't work because the causes of conflicts in this island are varied----we were busy searching for Who's Who in Philippine Politics.

Anton Lagdameo was there. My friend said it would have been better had he brought Dawn Zulueta with her.

Bebot Bello, the senatorial candidate who styled himself as Justice Man, was there, wearing a violet vest that reminds me very much of sapin-sapin.

Nanding Pacheco, founder of Ang Kapatiran Party, was there.

I don't know who else were there.

I didn't get much of what the presidentiables said. All I can say is that the forum was enlightening. There, I learned that the color of the dress that Amina Rasul, of the Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, wore yesterday was not orange. It's saffron.

Where's JC?

[caption id="attachment_733" align="alignleft" width="195" caption="JC Delos Reyes, presidential candidate of Ang Kapatiran Party"][/caption]

Delos Reyes, that is.

I don't mind having these presidential debates. In fact, I find it somehow refreshing to see the presidentiables no longer devoting much of their energies to practicing their jingles and dance steps; to see them participating in serious talks although one of them---you know who is he---would prefer cracking jokes to talking serious stuff.

But what rankles with me is that in all these presidential debates, forums---whatever you call them---JC Delos Reyes, the presidential candidate of Ang Kapatiran Party, is always absent.

Was he invited but chose to decline the invitation? Was he not invited at all? Or were the organizers of these debates unaware of his existence?

I don't know. But I do know that JC Delos Reyes is a presidential candidate we should also seriously consider.