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By Francis Earl A. Cueto, Reporter
Prodded by a senior Malacañang
official, Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos may have finally seen the
“signs” that she had waited for, will announce Monday she is
running for governor of Batangas.
An official from Batangas, who
asked not to be named, told The Manila Times that Santos, an actress
who is on her last term as Lipa mayor, will run under the Lakas
Party and will have Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s son,
Edwin, the vice-president of a security bank in Makati City, as her
running-mate.
“Ms. Vilma Santos-Recto will
run for the post of governor of Batangas and she will run under the
Lakas wing with Edwin Ermita,” it was reported.
The official added that Ermita
had been pushing Santos as governor because he is grooming his son
to be the next governor after Santos ends her term.
It was learned that both Ermita
and incumbent Batangas Gov. Armand Sanchez has not been on good
terms.
The official said Sanchez, a
member of the administration party Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang
Pilipino), at one point had differences with another Palace official
over the appointment of Batangas provincial chief, Sr. Supt. Edmund
S. Zaide, as officer in charge of the Batangas Police Provincial
Office through a resolution sponsored by Agusan del Sur Gov. Adolph
Edward Plaza.
Batangas police chief’s
relief
Sanchez questioned the relief of
Batangas police chief, Sr. Supt. Francisco C. Montenegro, and the
designation of an officer in charge without prior consultation with
him.
He said the order of the PNP
Regional Office to relieve Montenegro and appoint Zaide directly
violated the PNP Law that requires the governor to choose the
provincial police chief from a list of three nominees after which
would be submitted to President Arroyo for approval.
Such sentiment was echoed by the
Batangas official.
“Under the law, the Philippine
National Police submits to the governor three names and then from
there the governors is being given the right to choose who will be
the provincial chief. Then President Arroyo will approve or
disapprove it. This process was never followed in Batangas,” he
said.
The official added that Sanchez
even “pleaded” with the Palace executive to follow the law in
appointing the regional provincial director but it fell on deaf
ears.
“Governor Sanchez was the one
who almost lost his life last year yet his sentiments fell on deaf
ears,” the official said.
Up in arms
Sanchez’s supporters are up in
arms against the administration because he is a member of the
administration party.
“I was able to talk to some
local officials and local leaders in Batangas and they can’t seem
to understand why the administration put up another administration
candidate to fight the present administration incumbent,” the
official said.
The official said that while the
sentiments of the constituents in Batangas was to junk Team Unity
for the action, Sanchez appealed to his supporters to respect his
affiliation with the administration and support Team Unity’s
senatorial ticket.
Last year, Sanchez almost lost
his life after his car blew up, killing his driver and bodyguard.
Unsolved slay attempt
The case remains unsolved, as the
bomb was reportedly attached to Sanchez’s Hummer while it was
parked outside the provincial capitol in Batangas City. Crime-scene
probers found evidence that C-4, a military explosive, was used in
the blast.
Sanchez had just attended a
meeting of the Regional Development Council in the capitol and had
got into the Hummer when an explosion rocked the car. The blast
injured him, killed his driver Luisito Icaro and his bodyguard
Police Officer 2 Eric Landicho of the 402nd Provincial Police Mobile
Group. Sanchez escaped with burns and has been pronounced out of
danger.
As flames engulfed the car,
Landicho pushed Sanchez out. The governor crawled for a few meters
before another explosion destroyed the car.
Sanchez suffered second-degree
burns on his arms and was taken to nearby Nazareth Hospital. He was
later transferred to another hospital under heavy guard.
The tradeoff
Santos’s decision to seek the
gubernatorial post will not come without a price. The League of
Provinces of the Philippines has come up with a resolution junking
her husband, reelectionist Sen. Ralph Recto, a member of the Team
Unity, if she decides to go up against Sanchez, a member of the
league.
Santos will also go up against
her brother-in-law, incumbent Vice-Gov. Ricky Recto, a member of the
opposition.
Reports said the LPP, the
alliance of the country’s 81 governors, adopted the position
during their meeting last week.
According to the Batangas
official, 50 governors from the LPP met at the Sheraton Hotel to
draft a consensus. They went to the Palace on Wednesday last week to
inform President Arroyo of their stand to drop Recto if his wife
runs for governor.
But Recto, a candidate of the
administration’s TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Unity, was
unfazed by the threat, saying not all governors would junk him if
his wife ran against Sanchez, a member of the LPP.
Sulu Gov. Benjamin Loong, a
member of the LPP national executive committee, said the LGU
confirmed a majority of the governors would support their member,
Sanchez, against Santos who is expected to announce her
gubernatorial bid today.
Santos-Recto’s decision ends
almost months of talks about seeking a new elective position after
she eclipsed her three successive terms as mayor of Lipa City.
Presidential Political Adviser
Gabriel Claudio earlier said that as of Friday, the administration
candidate for Batangas governor remained Sanchez.
Santos had asked for a week’s
time to come out with her decision.
She is expected to announce her
candidacy before a crowd at the Lipa City hall at 2:30 p.m. today.
With a voting population of at
least 1.3 million, Batangas is one of the bigger political
battlegrounds in next May’s elections.
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