Singer Viktoria tries her luck in politics

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Viktoria (Victoria Agbayani in real life) is singing her way to the May 10 elections.

Known for her alternative pop music, 34-year-old Viktoria, "Daddy’s girl" of the late former Pangasinan governor Aguedo Agbayani, is running for mayor of Sual, a third-class municipality hosting the coal-fired power plant of Mirant Phils.

Two other Agbayanis are in the running: her brothers Victor, who is seeking his third term as governor, and Louie, who is gunning for the first district congressional seat after his third and last term as Sual mayor.

Viktoria said her father’s supporters prodded her to enter politics two elections ago. She finally consented when the Agbayani patriarch died last year.

She is running under the banner of Kampi against John Arcinue of Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats).

"I want to be part of building Pangasinan," she said.

This early, Viktoria confessed that she has been hearing negative remarks about her, mostly pertaining to her being a singer.

"But they don’t know my other side," she said.