Vilma Santos

Rosa Vilma Tuazon Santos (born November 3, 1953) is a Filipino actress and politician. Known for her versatile work on screen, she began her career as a child actress in the 1960s and was one of the biggest box-office draw from the 1970s to early 1980s. Her accolades include a Dhaka International Film Festival Award, thirteen FAMAS Awards, eleven Gawad Urian, and five Luna Awards. Santos served as the Mayor of Lipa from 1998 to 2007, then as Governor of Batangas in 23rd and 25th congress. She also served as the representative for Batangas' 6th district from 2016 to 2022, and as the House Deputy Speaker from 2019 to 2022.

Vilma Santos is widely considered the most lastingly successful Filipino film and television actress of all time. She was adjudged the greatest movie actress of the Philippines for the years 2000 to 2020 by the Philippine Entertainment Portal for her continued portrayal of a wide range of award-winning roles as well as for being a consistent box-office draw despite being in the industry for nearly six decades. Vilma's venture into politics made her semi-retire from showbusiness in the late 1990's yet she still emerged as the actress with the most number of best actress awards so far in the 21st century.

She started her acting career when one of her uncles, who was a cameraman at Sampaguita Pictures, convinced her to try out for the movies. Initially, Sampaguita Pictures had planned a child star role for her in Anak, Ang Iyong Ina (1963). When Santos was in the studio, she noticed a long line of little girls. Thinking that that line was the line for her audition, she decided to queue in. The long line turned out to be for an audition for Sampaguita Pictures' offering Trudis Liit (Little Trudis).

When it was her turn to audition, she was asked by the panel to sing, dance and cry on cue. She got the part of "Trudis Liit" for which she received the FAMAS Awards Best Child Performer award for 1963.

She was cast in Sa Bawat Pintig ng Puso (1964), Maria Cecilia (1965), Kasalanan Kaya? (1968), Iginuhit ng Tadhana (1965) and later in its sequel Pinagbuklod ng Langit (1969).

In 1998, she entered politics and ran for mayor of Lipa City, Batangas where she won three consecutive elections, becoming the city's first female mayor.

In 2005, the University of the Philippines Diliman conferred on her the Gawad Plaridel Award for her achievements and contributions both as an actress and a public servant. In the same year she was conferred an honorary doctorate degree (honoris causa) in humanities by the Lipa City College. She was again honored in 2006 by UP Diliman as one of the four awardees in UP's First Diwata Awards.

Santos ran for governor of Batangas in the 2007 Philippine general election. She was proclaimed Governor-elect on May 21, 2007, after garnering 475,740 votes against incumbent Arman Sanchez's 344,969, becoming the first female governor of the province. She was reelected to her second term as Governor of Batangas in 2010, defeating incumbent Santo Tomas Mayor Edna Sanchez, who substituted her husband Arman Sanchez who died a few weeks before the election. She was re-elected to her third and final term as Governor in 2013.