Silvestre “Bebot” Bello III is a candidate for senator. Silver who? Bello what? Bebop?

During the 40 years that he was in government serving under every President since Marcos but Estrada, “I was camera-shy,” Mr. Bello tells columnists. “And now I regret it.”

Now that he has to address crowds, he has to catch their attention by telling them, “I’m Justiceman Bello, but I’m not the husband of Vicky Belo.”

What do crowds look for and what do they remember, if they cannot place Mr. Bello, with a record as long as his name? He was Cory Aquino’s and FVR’s justice secretary; and before that undersecretary and solicitor general. Under GMA he was presidential adviser, cabinet secretary, peace negotiator.

With such a wealth of experience, he has anecdotes galore to tell, but do the crowds want to be regaled with stories of how rebel soldiers Jarque and Rodolfo Aguinaldo surrendered to him, how he was arrested by Gen. Fidel Ramos, the same PC-INP chief who would later recruit him for his cabinet?

With peace and justice as his battlecry, Bello-not-Belo agrees with his opposite number, Joma Sison, that the fastest way to wipe out the insurgents is to make them irrelevant by wiping out poverty, corruption and injustice.