Bistek bowing out? QC mayor ‘surprises’ by not filing COC

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

After more than three decades in various elective posts, Quezon City Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista appears to be stepping out of the political limelight.

The actor-turned-politician did not file a certificate of candidacy (COC) for next year’s elections, despite earlier rumors that the last-termer was setting his sights on either a Senate stint or a House seat as the city’s 3rd District representative.

Bautista’s move—or non-move—caught even his closest aides by surprise, according to Ares Gutierrez, the city’s public information chief.

“For the past weeks, he’s been telling friends and guests, who kept on asking him about his political plans, that he had been in public service for more than 30 years,” he told the Inquirer. “(That) he had not been able to spend enough time with his four children.”

Gutierrez, one of Bautista’s longtime friends, said he had noticed a change in the mayor’s “aura” after the latter returned from the US, where he saw his son graduate from a film school in October. “I think that was the time he became firm on his decision to stay away from politics and take care of his family and other personal matters,” he recalled.

Higher position

Residents and local politicians were expecting Bautista, who at 50 years old had served nine years as mayor, to seek a higher position. A Social Weather Stations survey conducted in September showed him placing 17th on a list of senatorial preferences, higher than some personalities with more publicized political ambitions.

Gutierrez said there had been “feelers” over the past few months raising the possibility of Bautista landing an appointive national government position after his term as mayor ends.