Richard for congressman?

MANILA, Philippines - Is he or isn’t he? Running for congressman in 2010, that is.

That’s the question many people want to ask Richard Gomez these days, now that he reportedly wants to sit as congressman in Ormoc, wife Lucy’s hometown.

Richard, dressed in formal dark suit and looking every inch a congressman at the presscon of his indie film Bente, replied, “Public service has always been deep inside me. There is a clamor for change in Ormoc. Given the chance to serve, I will — in the national or local level.”

Read: Yes, he will run for public office.

His late manager Douglas Quijano, says Richard, has given him his blessings. The ever-perceptive manager knew his ward inside out, and was confident Richard was up to the job.

Richard has scoured Ormoc, which he visits every weekend. He once accompanied Lucy to reunion with her high school classmates in the city.

Still, encouraging survey results will firm up Richard’s decision to seek public office. So he’s waiting for these signs to join local politics before saying something definite.

He’s sure of one thing, though. He will belong to the opposition party, if and when.

“I’ve been opposition ever since,” he explains.

This tendency to take the opposing view has gotten him in hot waters. But Richard himself insists he has mellowed down a bit. He has learned to bite his tongue when necessary and choose his battles.

“I’m an activist by nature,” he admits.

No wonder he’s been itching to play Aldred Gatchalian’s role — that of a student activist — in Bente. Instead, director Mel Chionglo, with whom Richard is working for the first time, cast him as the mayor’s problematic henchman.

The anti-hero role excites Richard no end. After all, it was for these kinds of roles — Wating, Dahas and Tuklaw — that Richard won Best Actor awards.

Thankfully, he doesn’t disappoint. The Philippine STAR columnist Butch Francisco referred to Richard as, “A true artist who knows how to show the various nuances called for by the character he is playing on the screen.”

Still, Richard knows things won’t be easy starting today when Bente opens in select cinemas. Richard, his producers (APT Entertainment and Directors’ Guild of the Philippines) and fellow actors (Iza Calzado, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Snooky Serna, Ryan Eigenmann, Glaiza de Castro, etc.) know they’re battling Goliaths: Ice Age 3 and Transformers. But Richard is unfazed.

“I’d like to be optimistic,” he relates. “I believe moviegoers will come and watch if they get offered a good option,” he notes. “The Cinema Evaluation Board gave Bente an A. Ours is an indie film finished like a mainstream motion picture.”

Like his friend Jinggoy, Richard didn’t charge a single centavo for his work in the film. As it is, observes Richard, heavy taxes are already killing local movies. So why punish it some more? Indie films, which does away with expensive film stock and resorts to electronic data instead, is the answer to this crisis.

And the beauty of it all, Richard reveals, is that we have many good indie films we can boast of.

Speaking of good things, have Richard and Lucy finally found a suitable replacement for their late manager?

“I don’t want to decide while we’re still emotional over Tito Dougs’ demise,” replies Richard.

Meantime, he feels privileged to be the one Douglas’ family and friends entrusted the late manager’s celfone to.

Some of his fellow talents have chosen him as their representative while they’re still scouting for a new manager.

“I accept calls for Tito Dougs,” Richard says with a smile.

It’s the least Richard can do for a man who made him what he is now, and continues to guide him as he stands on the threshold of another challenge waiting for him — months from now.