Vilma for governor

Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos will announce today her intention to run for governor of Batangas in the May 14 elections, highly placed administration sources said yesterday.

The official said Santos is making good her promise to announce her decision after asking for a week to discern whether to heed the clamor of the province’s 34 mayors and its people for her to run as governor even if it would pit her against her brother-in-law, Vice Gov. Ricky Recto.

"She (Santos) felt the strong calls from the youth, the mayors, the religious, and the businessmen and she thinks that she cannot anymore turn her back on them and from such a responsibility," according to the administration stalwart who was able to speak with Santos yesterday.

"She told me she would feel guilty if she turns her back on such a genuine clamor," the official told The STAR.

The source said Santos felt that "she is not just a mother, a wife or Mayor of Lipa but also a leader who can finally spur the economic growth of Batangas."

The official said based on a local survey, Santos obtained the support of 47 percent of the province’s voters, while Gov. Armand Sanchez got only 16 percent.

Vice Gov. Recto, who has been criticizing his brother and sister-in-law since reports of her intention to run surfaced, trailed at five percent.

The source said Santos, who has been in public office since 1998, consulted and got the blessing of her confidante in the religious community, and that her husband Sen. Ralph Recto was very happy with her decision to join the gubernatorial race.

According to the mayors, "the province is more important than the family when it comes to public service," adding that there were some negative reports on the vice governor, the official added.

Batangas is also important in any reckoning of senatorial and presidential elections since it has total of 1.2 million voters, the official said.

Apart from being a tourism hub with a secondary port and airport, Batangas is also one of the top five provinces out of the 79 provinces.

It is just several kilometers away from Metro Manila.