EVER TRIED DOING IT IN THE DARK?

In all modesty, I have to concede that people are right when they say that Gov. Manny Pinol is a good communicator.

I owe this ability to be able to speak in front of people for an hour extemporaneously from the training I received from my mother, Nanay Pining, who was my trainor in declamation and oration, along with my former high school teacher, Lourdes Paraiso-Varias.

People could easily relate to me whenever I speak because I use a language which they easily understand and touch on issues that affect their lives.

But in gauging whether I succeed in establishing a link between me and my listeners and audience, I always make it a point to look out for physical manifestations.

Say, if anybody in my audience would look at me blankly, it could mean that he did not understand what I was saying or that I was using a language he was not familiar with.

Inattentiveness is something I consider as a clue for me to either simplify my language or change my subject.

By simply looking at the reactions of people in the audience, I could point out with great accuracy who in the crowd belongs to the other political group.

One time, in a village in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato, I called a local leader after my speech and pointed out to her a woman in the audience.

“She belongs to the other group?,” I asked her and she said I was right. I easily spotted her from the crowd because while the others were applauding wildly at the issues they were able to relate to, she was clapping her hands weakly.

“Maintain eye contact with your audience,” is the rule which I religiously observe whenever I speak in front of an audience.

But how do you that in the dark?

Yesterday, in Barangay Thailand (yes, Thailand!), Banisilan, my public speaking prowess was put to a tough test when I spoke in front of people in the dark.

Using a battery-powered public address equipment, I spoke to a group of about 100 local residents who waited for me even in the dark and drizzling evening just to listen to Manny Pinol.

There was no way I could establish eye contact with them or even look at the physical manifestations to determine whether they understood what I was saying.

But I heard their loud laughter when I cracked jokes, I heard their sigh when I told them of the very bad state of the provincial road from Banisilan to Libungan which is not passable to commercial vehicles anymore, and most of all I heard their loud applause when I told them that there is hope for an end to the debilitating blackout and there is a big chance that their children could go to college in the Central Mindanao University in Musuan, Bukidnon instead of sending them to Kabacan, North Cotabato which is inaccessible to them.

Last night, I realized why the blind could still communicate effectively with people around them, why Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Andrea Bocelli could touch people’s heart with their songs.

Speak from the heart, sing from the core of you soul and people will understand that you care for them and you love them.

You could do it even in the dark.