Philippine Daily Inquirer

Kapatiran’s De los Reyes out to slay dynasties

- Reports from Robert Gonzaga and Carmela Reyes-estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon

OLONGAPO CITY—John Carlos “JC” de los Reyes is out to slay the “monster of political dynasties.”

In his campaign for a Senate seat, launched yesterday in Olongapo City where he was once a councilor, De los Reyes announced he was taking on the administra­tion Team PNoy and the United Nationalis­t Alliance (UNA) for “fielding candidates from the same families who have been in power for such a long time.”

“They epitomize transactio­nal politics, the politics of greed and of hypocrisy,” said De los Reyes, head of the Church-backed Ang Kapatiran who launched an unsuccessf­ul drive for the presidency in the 2010 balloting.

At the start of the senatorial campaign season, De los Reyes heard Mass, hosted a radio program and met with his supporters.

He said that if the administra­tion’s tuwid na daan slogan meant “pushing for the abolition of pork barrel, of passing the freedom of informatio­n bill and removing dynasties in government, then it would mean something.”

“They could do big things,” he said. Unfortunat­ely, he said, this was not the case.

This is why Ang Kapatiran is joining the political fray, De los Reyes said, and why he is going against the patriarch of his own clan, Richard Gordon, an UNA senatorial candidate. Gordon is the brother of his mother Barbara.

De los Reyes said Ang Kapatiran’s senatorial candidates would hold a proclamati­on rally on Friday at the Archdioces­e of Lipa in Batangas province.

 ?? INQUIRER PHOTO ?? JC DE LOS REYES
INQUIRER PHOTO JC DE LOS REYES

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