Toinks!

The COMELEC has ruled that actor Richard Gomez is not qualified to run for congressman of the 4th district of Leyte for failure to comply with the 1-year residency requirement.

Although Richard claims he spends more time in Leyte than in Manila since 2007, many expected his disqualification, as it would be nearly impossible for Richard to convince COMELEC that his primary residence is Leyte when we used to see him on TV everyday for his game show and teleseryes. Also, his profession, his business and most family members and friends are in Manila.

Richard’s lawyers said they no longer plan on appealing the decision of the COMELEC, although they do not agree with it. They are instead positioning Richard’s wife, Lucy Torres-Gomez, as his replacement. This development was based on the Comelec Rule of Substitution for a dead or disqualified candidate.

The substitute candidate should carry the same last name and belong to the same political party as the dead or disqualified candidate. Thus, Lucy, bearing the family name of his husband and after taking an oath to become a member of the Liberal Party, seems to be their best bet.

Lucy has taken over in the campaigns, telling her fellow Ormocanons to “vote 1, take 2″ as Richard will serve as her Chief of Staff if she wins. She is facing Eufrocino Codilla Jr., whose family has run the district for several years now, for the Congress seat.

We just hope that Richard is targeting a seat in Congress — and now fielding his wife in the Congressional race — for service and not for power. This is his 3rd attempt in politics, in 2001 as Representative of the party-list Mamamayan Ayaw sa Droga (disqualified) and in 2007 for Senate (lost).

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.