For the senate, the celebrity roster, so far.

Lakas Kampi-CMD has Rey Langit, Lito Lapid, Bong Revilla, who's also a guest candidate of the Nationalista Party. Erap's Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) has Jinggoy Estrada. Bangon Pilipinas has two broadcast personalities: Kata Inocencio and Alex Tinsay. The Kilusang Bagong Lipunan has Imelda Papin.

Note that we haven't even discussed the athletes. That's reserved for another blog.

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Thanks to German Moreno, I now live in a city that's called the City of the Stars. If only for this, I spit on his grave. Oh wait–he's still alive. I spit on his luminous mustard-yellow tuxedo then.

Maybe because it's "the city of the stars," the Quezon City Hall seems to have always exerted a strong magnetic pull on showbiz folk. Many have tried and many have been brokenhearted. The first that comes to mind is the late action star Rudy Fernandez and his unsuccessful excursion for the mayoralty in 2001.

Then there's Bistek, of course, a.k.a Herbert Bautista, vice-mayor of Quezon City who's only counting three more months till the "vice" gets finally struck off his title. Right now, survey shows he's way ahead of the pack.

The thing is, Bautista has stopped becoming just the fellow who starred in Flor de Luna, Bagets, Estudyante Blues, Captain Barbell, Puto, and many others. To paraphrase Cecile Guidote-Alvarez's phrase, he was not a moron before he becomes mayor. Aside from many, many years of hands-on experience from Kabataang Baranggay chair to councilor to vice-mayor (1995 to 1998 and 2001 to present), he holds a philosophy degree from San Beda and has   master's degrees in Public Administration from UP Diliman and in National Security Administration from the National Defense College of the Philippines. But for some reason, he remains my favorite Bagets character. There's something about bespectacled, geeky underdogs.

And there's the celebrity councilors. We had Dingdong Avanzado, whose hit song "Tatlong Bente Singko" would sound completely cryptic and primitive to today's iPhone-toting teenagers. Avanzado was also behind the "City of the Stars" schtick so I'm spitting on his grave as well. And not to forget, Anthony Castelo, who has the voice that could create icicles in your coffee. As to what their political legacies are to their respective districts I have yet to find out. And while we're at the subject, in my district, Franz Pumaren, former PBA pointguard and longtime councilor whose legacy might be basketball courts, wants to be congressman.

Which now brings us to Dennis Roldan. As an actor back in the early '70s, he was sexy, menacing, and hairy (perfectly cast in Laurice Guillen's Salome). But he's particularly fascinating to me because he was our Representative in the third district of Quezon City. In 2005, he was charged with masterminding the kidnapping of a 3-year-old Chinese-Filipino boy in Pasig City but walked out after posting a P500,000 bail and allegedly some voodoo from Malacanang. The question remains: wasn't the pork barrel enough to make you a happy retiree? It was rumored, though, that the dude has some serious gambling problems.

Actress Ara Mina (born Hazel Klenk Reyes) is running for Quezon City's second district Monday. The daughter of former Quezon City councilor Chuck Mathay will run as an independent candidate. "Independent of intelligence," the cruel joke goes.

Entertainment columnist Ogie Diaz (real name: Roger Pandaan) is also running as councilor for QC's fourth district. But it's hard to be taken seriously when your literary ouvre consists of tracts with such titles as "YOUNG STAR, NAKIPAGLAPLAPAN KAYA HINIWALAYAN NG DYOWANG AKTOR?"

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It's only been 53 years since the first mass media star was elected to public office. Fifty-three years is not a long time. That's in comparison to other democracies. Maybe in the next 50 years, we'll find another Erap with a genuine heart for the poor, or another Ara Mina who seriously knows the value of private armies and the perils of premarital sex. Or a Judy Ann Santos who knows the folly of endorsing candidates who would realize after six years "the folly of her ways."

If not, all we have to do is just turn off the TV. But then again, we'd be bored to tears.

Artwork by Warren Espejo.