Tarlac leaders back Kris’ gubernatorial bid

ANGELES CITY — Mayors from Tarlac’s third district are backing the possible gubernatorial bid of movie celebrity Kris Aquino as the official gubernatorial bet of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats party against Nationalist People’s Coaltion (NPC) incumbent Gov. Jose "Aping" Yap in next year’s elections.

"We have no other option (for gubernatorial candidate). We will definitely endorse her," Lakas official and Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan bared in a telephone interview with The STAR yesterday.

Catacutan said he met with officials of his town to tackle Ms. Aquino’s candidacy after she hinted in her television show Morning Girls last Monday that she might run for governor.

"Everybody was agreed that we have at last found our candidate," Catacutan said.

Yap could not be contacted as his office said he is in the United States.

While Ms. Aquino was apparently joking when she told her show guests, Leyte Rep. Ted Failon and Caloocan councilor Dennis Padilla, that she might consider running for governor, Catacutan said that her provincemates are now taking her seriously.

"We have been waiting for such a decision all along. I think she has, at last, decided and we will stand by her," Catacutan said, adding that Lakas leaders are set to meet this week to come out with a formal endorsement of Aquino’s gubernatorial bid.

"It will be a good fight (between Ms. Aquino and Yap). Afterall, apart from the fact that Kris is intelligent, she has former Pres. Cory Aquino for a mother and our hero Sen. (Benigno) Aquino for father," Catacutan stressed, noting that the Aquinos and the Yaps are not blood-related anyway.

Ms. Aquino has admitted registering as a voter in her father’s Concepcion hometown amid reports that she is eyeing a senatorial seat in the 2007 elections when she reaches the required minimum age of 35. She is now 32 years old. — Ding Cervantes