Who's afraid of RP? Not John Ford Coley!

MANILA, Philippines - John Ford Coley goes where others fear to tread. Horror stories about the Philippines from fellow Americans in the US don’t faze him.

“When I got off the plane the first time I arrived here, people asked me why I was traveling alone,” he says over lunch at Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila, where he will hold his Timeless Love dinner show on Feb. 13, with another concert at Heritage Hotel on Feb. 18.

“I told them I’ve traveled around the world alone. I’ve been to (war-torn) Israel alone. I don’t see why I should be afraid.”

Coley is not afraid when he walks alone at the Mall of Asia, where he sometimes brings along his camera. When well-meaning friends ask why he should bring the camera along, the singer-songwriter smiles and says they should not worry for him.

“I won’t go easy on the bad guys,” he explains.

Figures why his wife doesn’t mind staying behind in Tennessee. She knows her husband is just one notch below karate black belt level and can protect himself. She’d rather look after their young children, one of whom will have a karate tournament on Feb. 26.

“That, I have to see,” says the doting dad. “That’s why I have to be home on that date.”

The family knows their patriarch scoffs at danger, even when it’s just a little more than a stone’s throw away.

“I had a show at Hard Rock Café, Makati when a bomb exploded in Glorietta in 2007,” recalls Coley. “I was a hundred yards away and I saw the table shake.”

Coley even jokes about it.

“People were telling me these things happen only when I’m around. And I tell them, “Look, I’m not at fault. Josh Groban was also here,” Coley laughs.

The sense of humor has seen him through what otherwise could have been a sticky situation. A year ago, a man came up to Coley while he was furiously signing autographs. The man didn’t take it sitting down when Coley admitted he couldn’t remember the stranger’s name. The man, his voice booming, asked again if Coley knew him and he answered no. The guy hastily left, with Coley chuckling to himself.

A lesser mortal could have been shaken, Coley chose to laugh the incident off.

He even brings that sense of humor on stage.

“I’m going to squawk,” he told press people before he rendered a couple of love songs on the Hyatt stage.

Coley hardly squawked, of course. He sang and strummed the guitar on this, his nth visit to the country.

“I’ve been to Cebu, Bacolod, Tacloban, Subic, Clark, Davao and San Fernando,” he ticks off. Told that he should check out Boracay, Coley’s eyes light up. He surely will, he promised.

“Gut feeling tells me my heart is in Asia and Europe,” Coley reveals.

His Filipino friends bear this out. Faith Cuneta, who will guest in Coley’s show on Feb. 13 (David Pomeranz and Ciara Sotto guest on Feb. 18), cooks for him. As token of their friendship, Coley wrote the song Not For Me especially for Faith. The song is included in Coley’s new CD, Timeless Love Songs.

“I like to make friends with people I work with,” Coley relates. “Relationships are important to me.”

Coley values his relationship with Filipinos so much he even keeps a T-shirt proudly proclaiming “Pinoy ako!”

Aside from Faith, Coley tapped Filipino musicians and performers like Ciara to join his new CD, to be released worldwide.

He doesn’t even mind being called puyo and asking “Ano ang paborito mong gulay?” in that American accent of his.

Despite his fair skin and towering mien, John Ford Coley can be as Pinoy as you and me.