It’s Vilma for Ralph

Last Tuesday’s Bulong-Pulungan crowd was won over by Sen. Ralph Recto with his answers to questions ranging from the E-vat to population issues, to redistribution of the country’s wealth, to issuing vouchers instead of giving 20 percent discounts to senior citizens. He said the government should not interfere in bedroom matters and therefore should not legislate family size, but he favors the use of all sorts of contraceptives. He said political candidates promise "everything, but they do not tell where to get the money."

But the most awaited of his comments was on his wife, Lipa City Mayor and movie actress Vilma Santos’ running for governor. All told, he said Vilma should make a run for it, considering that she has served as a good executive for nine years. As to his brother Ricky’s insistence that he should be the one running, Ralph said no way, but also that he hopes the issue will be resolved soon.

"It was an emotional moment," Lipa Mayor Vilma Santos said the day before Bulong-Pulungan, when she faced thousands of her constituents rooting for her to become the next governor of Batangas. It was her first public appearance after a week of seclusion to mull over that opportunity.

But the Batangueños don’t seem to care about Vice-Gov. Ricky’s passion for the post, judging from the swell of public support for Mayor Vi. It was meant to be an ordinary flag-raising ceremony last Monday at city hall, but it turned out to be a rally for her. Everyone was hoping it would be a proclamation rally, but the "Star for All Seasons" asked for one week to discern her next move.

Mayor Vi has become an icon for showbiz politicians. No less than former Senate President Jovito Salonga has attested to that, when he advised showbiz personalities to "first do a Vilma" if they intend to transform themselves into public servants. But Vilma is not relying solely on her star power to preset herself as a public servant. Before she ran for mayor, she took up public administration at the University of the Philippines.

Mayor Vi’s popularity is a signal to all our politicians that the days of patronage politics are coming to a close, and in its place, a clamor from the people for true leadership among their politicians. Mayor Vi has proven herself a leader of the people, so I join those rooting for her to rise to the occasion.

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Speaking of showbiz personalities-turned-public servants, Optical Media Board (OMB) Chair Edu Manzano has turned out quite well himself. I mention him here not because he used to be the husband of Vilma Santos during her reign as the "Star for All Seasons," but due to his noteworthy performance as OMB chief.  

Based on Manzano’s latest report, the OMB has caused a dent worth P447.8 million in the country’s piracy business, after the OMB Inspection and Intelligence Department conducted some 1,034 raids from February 2006 to February 2007.

Edu has done the country proud in his performance as OMB chair, for which he earned the plaudits of the Motion Pictures Association of America, Inc. with MPAA president Dan Glickman writing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and commending "the anti-piracy enforcement results your government has recently achieved, and in particular, the results of Optical Media Board chair Eduardo Manzano have been outstanding."

The OMB’s achievements have also won for Edu the "Asia-Pacific Copyright Enforcer of the Year" citation given by the MPAA during the 2006 CineAsia Convention held in Beijing, China in December last year.  It was the first such award given to anti-piracy enforcers in the region.

Edu has also been a recipient of the "Dangal Ng Lahi" award given by the Government Service & Anti-Piracy Crusade in November 2006. Last January, media outfit DZXL-RMN gave Edu a certificate of recognition for doing his job well.

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Strategic Works, Inc. (Stratworks) has been awarded five Anvil awards, including the coveted Grand Anvil award, at the Public Relations Society of the Philippines’ (PRSP) Gabi ng Parangal held at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati recently.

The Anvil awards, considered the Oscars of the PR industry, honor the most outstanding PR programs and tools. The highest award, the Grand Anvil, was given to Stratworks for its marketing communications campaign dubbed "Kaya ng Pinoy" for the historic Mt. Everest Expedition which saw the first Filipinos to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. The campaign also won the Anvil Award for Excellence.

"The award is an affirmation of our key message: that only through hard work, unity and self-sacrifice can we as a people reach greater heights like Mt. Everest," said Donna Nievera-Conda, Stratworks managing director. Photographs show her with expedition founder Art Valdez and Everest summiteers Pastor Emata and Leo Oracion.

A Social Weather Station (SWS) survey cited the Pinoy triumph at Mt. Everest as the most salient positive news in 2006, a year dominated by natural calamities and disasters.

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