VISIONS AND DREAMS: The richest official in Talisay City, Mayor Johhny “JVR” delos Reyes included glimpses of his personal history when he delivered his first State of the City Address (SOCA) last July 15. A Seventh Day Adventist, he promised God he would help the poor if he becomes rich. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
Some call Talisay City Mayor Johnny de los Reyes the “miracle candidate” after he beat former congressman Eduardo Gullas in the mayoral election last year.
He’s also known as the inventor of “canker sore drops” who used his wealth to reach out to the needy even after losing several previous elections.
“JVR” recalled the turning point in his life, where he decided to be a champion of the poor, during his first State of the City Address (SOCA) last week.
For the first 15 minutes of his speech, he shared with a hall full of guests – a mix of supporters and critics – his personal experience of having dreams and hearing a “deep, mystical” voice instructing him to devote his life to helping the poor.
JVR said it all started when he saw poor patients in the hospital where his eldest daughter was being treated for meningitis.
“Some of the patients ate spoiled food and many children were dying because they couldn’t afford medicine,” he said.
As the seventh of 10 children, he said he too came from a poor family.
In 1974, he said, he made a promise to God that he would return to the hospital to help the poor if given the chance to succeed in life and improve his lot.
One day, he was struck by the sermon of a pastor who said, “Anything you ask from the Lord, ask in a midnight prayer.”
Delos Reyes is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
For three nights, he prayed at midnight. On the third night just after praying, he said he heard a deep, mystifying voice tell him, “Johnny, let your motorcycle run on LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas).”
The next day, he did as he was told. He tried using his motorbike all day but nothing worked. When he was about to give up, the motorcycle’s engine roared to life.
He said he had dreams the following nights hinting of selling the LPG-run motorcycle. In the dreams, he said he saw himself struggling up a mountain in the middle of a storm. Already out of strength, he buried his hands in the ground in resignation. He then saw a hand pull him up, taking him to the summit.
“Fulfill your promise,” he recalled a voice telling him “or else I will bring you back down.”
He later joined a national contest on inventions and he won as “Inventor of the Year” and was given the “Presidential Award.”
“I started to live a comfortable life. People knew who I was, I had a car, a tie-up with gas companies and a factory,” he said.
Within two years after his success, he only visited the hospital once.
“I was so happy but I knew God was not,” he said.
On the third year, he lost his livelihood, his car and his comfortable life, forcing him to take a job as a “konduktor” in Zamboanga del Norte.
“God took it all away. I couldn’t even afford rice anymore,” he said.
Feeling shame, he stopped praying. After a year, he started to dream again.
In this dream, he was riding a motorcycle into the city where he stopped by a two-storey building. There, he was invited to come inside for a meal by people in green uniforms. He obliged. At the dining area just when he was about to seat “balbacua,” he realized to his horror that he was holding a leg.
“It was a pale, lifeless leg,” described JVR, his face contorting with the memory.
JVR said he woke up sweating, his body shaking in fear. He started to pray again.
Believing the dream to be a bad omen, he decided to leave Zamboanga and go back to Talisay city where his wife and children were staying.
One night in Cebu, he got news that an old relative had a heart attack and was taken to a hospital in Cebu City. Just before heading out on his motorcycle to visit, he heard a faint voice whisper to him:
“Pray.”On his way to the city, JVR collided with a pedestrian. His motorbike crashed and the civilian fell on the curb.
He tried to get up but his ankle was dislocated.
“My foot felt like it was dangling,” he recalled.
He got a cab and rushed to the hospital where his relative was confined, but this time JVR underwent a five-hour operation to save his foot. He was shocked to see that the nurse attending to him wore the same green uniform that he saw in his earliest dream.
“I started crying out, ‘Lord, forgive me!’” he said, realizing his forgotten promise.
He was discharged three days later and left in a wheelchair. He glanced back to the building and recognized the hospital as as the same two-storey building in his dream.
JVR said pleaded with God for another chance to fulfill his promise to help the poor if the medicine he was developing for jouth sores would succeed in the market.
The canker sore drops sold like hot cakes. From the proceeds, he committed to give to the poor P2 from each item he sold.
Since then, Johnny the Dreamer has been visiting hospitals looking for indigent patients and running feeding programs for the poor.
“I was blessed because I fulfilled my promise (to God) that is why despite the many times I’ve lost in politics, my help for the poor never ceased,” he said.
Based on his self-declared assets, the first-time mayor is the richest elected official in Talisay City.
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