Goma mulls options for 2007 polls

Popular actor-cum-national athlete Richard Gomez, or "Goma," is mulling whether to run for senator, Bulacan governor, or Manila vice mayor as running mate of Sen. Alfredo Lim — providing, of course, that elections push through in May next year.

The 40-year-old actor is being approached as a possible contender for public office by opposition stalwarts. Ousted president Joseph Estrada has urged him to run either for the Senate or for governor of Bulacan.

Gomez disclosed to The STAR yesterday that Estrada has been trying to convince him to run for public office and serve the interests of the Filipino people.

Gomez served as presidential adviser on youth and sports development during the administration of Estrada who remains under rest house detention in Tanay, Rizal while facing plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan.

"I talked to him (Estrada) during my last visit in Tanay and he wants me to consider my options to run as senator or governor in Bulacan," Gomez said.

Gomez said Estrada and the opposition leaders are convinced there will be elections next year because there is not enough time for the administration of President Arroyo to meet its Charter change timetable and shift to a parliamentary system of government.

Being in Congress, he said, is nothing new to his family since his great grandfather, Dr. Dominador Gomez, was one of the members of the First Philippine Assembly in 1902.

Why Bulacan? Gomez said the family of his mother, former actress Stella Suarez, hails from San Rafael town.

Attending a regular Tuesday Club breakfast meeting at the EDSA Shangri-La in Mandaluyong City yesterday, Senator Lim caught sight of Gomez jogging his way to the hotel for his workout and pulled him to the forum to renew his offer to the actor to become his vice mayoral running mate in Manila.

"Because both of us are identified with our anti-drug campaigns," Lim pointed out.

Although he still has three years remaining in his first term as a senator, the former mayor of Manila wants to return to being a local chief executive. Lim, however, might have to face his fellow opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson who earlier voiced plans of running for Manila mayor.

Although he and his family live in posh Greenhills village in San Juan, Gomez said he was born in Manila and owns a condo unit in Sta. Mesa.

Gomez said his wife, model and STAR Lifestyle columnist Lucy Torres, supports his decision to run for public office. The couple have a five-year-old daughter, Juliana.

He, however, hastened to add there is nothing final yet on his political plans as of now.

Gomez is now with a career in movies and television and has two regular programs on GMA Channel 7. He figured last year in an alleged tax-shaving case filed against him by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The actor insisted that he and fellow movie star and GMA Channel 7 talent Judy Ann Santos — who is also being pursued by BIR on a tax evasion case — were victims of harassment and intimidation by the government. The two stars are closely identified with opposition leaders who are attacking the Arroyo administration.

Though Gomez has a lot of followers and fans as a movie actor and sportsman, his first entry into politics got him burned after he ran and won a post as a party-list representative to Congress in the May 2001 elections.

But before the Commission on Elections could finish counting his more than one million votes to qualify as a party-list candidate for the Mamamayang Ayaw sa Droga (MAD), petitioners from left-leaning Bayan Muna group led by Satur Ocampo and others questioned the alleged use of public funds in Gomez’s campaign. The case remains pending in the Comelec.