Political Career
Coming from a political family,[citation needed] it was inevitable for
the
young Petilla to run for a public office. During the 2004 election
campaign,
he divested his shares in his private investments to make a run as a
governor of Leyte, even challenging a more popular bet in the person of
three-term Representative and now Presidential Legal Adviser Sergio
Apostol.
He won during that year's election, thus giving Leyteños a bright
future.
His first 100 days of office saw the drafting of the implementing Rules
and
Regulations of the Leyte Province Investment Code of 2004. The code
aims to
encourage investors to locate in Leyte with the salient feature of
getting a
100% real property tax holiday for 5 years.[citation needed]
Recently his vision of making Leyte an ICT hub with the creation of an
ICT
Park is now a reality. The Philippine Economic Zone Authority approved
the
application of the Province of Leyte to convert the 6.9 hectares lot at
Barangay Pawing, Palo, Leyte, where the developed and ready for
operation
Leyte Academic Center is located, into the Leyte Information
Communication
Technology Park.[citation needed]
Senate bid
This article or section contains information about one or more
candidates
in an upcoming or ongoing election.Content may change dramatically as
the
election approaches and unfolds.
Petilla caught everyone by surprise when he accepted the nomination of
the
ruling Lakas-CMD party, where he belonged since the start of the year,
as
one of its candidates for Senator under the Team Unity umbrella in the
May
14, 2007 Philippine midterm elections, although his name was never
initially
floated by pundits as the candidate who would represent the Visayas
region
in the slate.[citation needed]
However, only days after he filed his candidacy for the Senate, he
withdrew
his name from the list of Team Unity candidates and will run for
re-election
as his mother, incumbent Leyte Rep. and three-term Gov. Remedios
"Matin"
Loreto-Petilla, decided to retire from politics. Instead, the Petilla's
partymates in Lakas selected Boholano actor Cesar Montano as his
replacement
in the slate, according to Team Unity spokseperson and Tourism
Secretary
Joseph Ace Durano.[citation needed]
Personal Life
Icot, as he is called, is the son of former Leyte Governor Leopoldo E.
Petilla (1992-1995) and Rep. Petilla. He is married to Frances Ann
Regis
Basilio of Cebu and they have five children