Richard J. Gordon, called Dick, was born in Zambales to a half-American father and a Filipino mother.
"I had pretty good life. Olongapo was a nice town."
Gordon saw the transition after the Americans left the bases.
"As usual, when something as wealthy as a town like Olongapo run by Americans was transferred, appointed officials took over and my father fought these guys until he became the first elected Mayor of Olongapo City.
Gordon got his first job in Proctor and Gamble, a job he says was the pick of the lot. When his father was assassinated after three attempts, he left Proctor & Gamble and returned to his family. He was his mother's campaign manager in her candidacy for mayor. Eventually, he becamse a lwayer, then mayor.
"The first thing I did was call the people together. I said we will prepare for the withdrawal of bases. That's how the Free Port of Subic was born in 1980. We've done very, very well."
On Erap and the ashfall that started it all
Gordon says Estrada had always held a grudge against him because they had clashed on the bases.
"He got mad at me when he dropped his cigarette at the city hall. I picked it up and put it in an ashtray and said, 'In spite of the fact that we are having a hard time on Pinatubo, we still manage to maintain our sanitation habits.'
"I don't think he ever forgot that. So I became Administrative Order No. 1. I was removed."
After Estrada was removed, Gordon was appointed Secretary of Tourism.
On why it is his duty to run for President
Gordon says he still could have run for the Senate.
"I knew I could win. I could win it easily. I have a pretty good track record. I've after all did automated elections, the tourism law, the International Humanitarian Law. I did Blue Ribbon rather well. I did government corporations rather well. I'm pretty good with what I do."
But he believes executives should run the government. To run for senate again would be turning his back on the Filipino people.
"I didn't need another time in the Senate. I could go back to the Senate, no. There's no more time."
The country, he says, would benefit from his experience.
"After all, name me any other other candidate that has become Concon delegate at a very young age, who's a lawyer, that became a mayor, that became chairman of Subic Bay, that improved our economy dramatically and took out the yoke of American presence here, that became Secretary of Tourism against a sea of a negativism, then became Senator of the Republic and did all those laws, and at the same time, 43 years fighting disaster."
On why he is not afraid of anyone's parents, money or name
Others have already begun campaigning.
"Hindi ako takot sa pera ninyo, hindi ako takot sa mga pangalan ninyo, ng mga tatay at nanay ninyo, ng mga limpak limpak na salapi ninyo." [I am not afraid of your money; I am not afraid of your names; I am not afraid of your fathers and mothers, I am not afraid of your millions.]
On why surveys are not important—yet
He is not against surveys, but he is unhappy with the fact they are early. He feels they should come out days before the campaign.
"The surveys have a way of getting money for the politician who wants to run. They put money into advertising. One candidate did that. In May, he spent 114 Million pesos and then had a survey done in June and then published it. Then he got up, dramatically. And when he got up he thought he was all the way up , people started to believe in money then Cory Aquino died he went down again and so really its just a lot of manipulation right now."
Even with his current low rankings in the surveys—taken, he says, without his consent—he feels he can win. There are many months ahead.
"I'm a risk taker. I'm going all out."
IRON FIST: Bayani Fernando for Vice President
Bayani Flores Fernando is 63 years old, born in San Juan, and brought up in Marikina. He graduated as a Mechanical Engineer at the Mapua Institute of Technology. After 25 years in private business, he decided to shift careers, and decided public service was the next best thing. After all, his father was mayor of Marikina. Three terms later, Fernando was appointed Chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority.
Fernando believes in building character.
"I did a lot of physical changes in Marikina, believing that man by nature adapts himself to his physical environment, and I want to change the social behavior of this community, and I converted my passion for building structures to passion in building character."
Pink
Fernando's Metro Gwapo is pink. "There's that saying, 'In the pink of health.' The color of healthy flesh of human flesh is actually pink, so that stands for the healthy community."
On posters, endorsements and being Hitler
Fernando sees nothing wrong in the MMDA-funded signs posted across the metro bearing his face. He says they are used to promote the MMDA's advocacies.
"My face is there to attract attention. I have that observation that Filipinos, they see any instructions or any note, they came across any signage, first thing they ask is, "Who said so?"
"It's the same thing as, why do we have the picture of Sharon Cuneta in those commercials? We need that endorser and I am that endorser.
"I'm the Hitler."
On psychological warfare
He says only very few disagree witrh his more authoritarian methods of implementing laws. He cannot please everybody, he says, and it cannot be helped that there are losers. He works for the benefit of many.
"Contrary to what people may think, we are not punishing anybody. As a matter of fact, in my 17 and a half years of public service as mayor and chairman of MMDA, I have not committed anyone to jail. And most of all wala akong pinapatay na tao. [I have not killed anybody].
"All these things that you've been hearing like pouring kerosene on the goods of the sidewalks, actually, I have never done that. I have said it once as a psy-war, part of our psychological warfare
On why "The Rights of a Child" should be kept away from children
Fernando believes in censorship, especially on broadcast television, because of its impact of the minds of the people.
"We have to stop putting ideas in the minds of the people, or wrong reasons that would tend to spoil the society."
We must protect the youth, he says.
"They came out on television with the Rights of the Child. Well, we should know these things but it should not be broadcasted for the young to hear. It would be so bad because when the young hear this, it might get him to think that he has the liberty to do anything because the young mind has to be supervised. We don't let him hear those things without supervision. You're really going to spoil him. "
