ALTHOUGH he is running a far third in the latest pre-election surveys, Manila Mayor and Aksyon Demokratiko standard bearer Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso yesterday said he is optimistic he can pull off a surprise win in the May 9 elections.
Moreno said his confidence has been inspired by the 1948 presidential elections in the Unites States, where Harry Truman pulled off an upset victory against New York Governor Thomas Dewey.
He also cited his 2019 victory in the Manila mayoralty race against former president and re-electionist mayor Joseph Estrada and former city mayor Alfredo Lim despite also lagging in pre-election surveys.
“If we all believe that history repeats itself, Gov. Dewey has been leading the survey for one year, even to the point that Chicago Tribune printed the newspaper for tomorrow that ‘Dewey won,’” Domagoso said.
“But it turned out, tahimik lang pala ‘yung tao. Kinabukasan, ang nanalo si Truman,” he added.
He recalled that in the 2019 elections, he was running third in pre-election surveys but eventually cornered 51 percent of the votes cast in the mayoralty race.
“Dahil nga natatakot ‘yung mga tao at tinatabi lang nila ang boto nila (The people were fearful and remained silent until voting time),” he said, adding he is hoping history would repeat itself this year in his bid for the highest position in the land.
Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. leads the presidential pre-election survey, followed by Vice President Leni Robredo.
“I am no stranger to being a political underdog since this was the story of my life ever since I became a Manila councilor in 1998,” he said.
Moreno said he is also heartened by the warm support he and his running mate, Willie Ong, and Aksyon Demokratiko’s senatorial candidates Samira Gutoc, Carl Balita and Jopet Sison are getting from the people he called the “silent majority” in their campaign sorties. Former Agrarian Reform secretary John Castriciones is a guest senatorial candidate of Moreno’s team.
“Their support gives me the strength, especially since wherever we go, the mood of the people is different compared to what the surveys say,” he said, adding the silent majority could turn around the results of the coming polls.
“Beggars cannot choose, so I will get all their leftovers. I will win over what remains. If they don’t like these people, I’m willing to have them,” he said.
Moreno added his team would not change their campaigning tactics with less than two weeks before the election, adding that instead of holding rallies with “hakot crowds” he would continue going directly to the people to explain his platform and know their concerns.
“We are holding on tight, who knows we might get the support of the silent majority,” he said. “As Martin Luther King said, ‘If you cannot fly, run. If you cannot run, walk. If you cannot walk, crawl.”
RAPS VS MORENO
Moreno and five other city officials are facing a criminal complaint filed yesterday by market vendors before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Divisoria Public Market Credit Cooperative, represented by five of its officials, named Vice Mayor Maria Sheila “Honey” Lacuna-Pangan, Councilors Joel Chua and Ernesto Isip Jr., Secretary to the Mayor Bernardito Ang, and Assistant Secretary to the mayor Manuel Zarcal as co-respondents.
They accused the city officials of multiple violations of Sections 3 (e), (g), and (j) of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Moreno’s camp said it has not received a copy of the complaint.
Last month, Moreno defended the sale of the Divisoria public market to Festina Holdings Inc. for P1.4 billion, saying it was meant to raise funds for the city’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
At the center of the complaint is the city government’s sale of the 8,038.70-square meters old Divisoria Market lot as authorized by the Sangguniang Panlungsod Resolution Nos. 171 s. 2020 and 180 s. 2020.
The vendors’ group said they were not given notice of the impending sale, which allegedly deprived them of their rights as tenants who hold contracts on their stalls in the Wet and Dry Goods sections of the Divisoria Mall effective 1992 to 2046.
It said the mayor and the other respondents merely used as pretext the “urgent financial needs of the city of Manila during the pandemic.”
The complainants said the city council resolutions omitted the requirement for prior notice and consultation with the tenants and market vendors who were displaced by the transaction despite their pre-existing lease contracts.
They claimed the city should have first secured a pronouncement from the Office of the President that the Divisoria Public Market is “no longer needed or used for a public purpose or service.”
“The unrestrained disposition of the Divisoria Public Market by the City council …trampled on the rights and interests of the Divisoria Market Vendors …thus causing undue prejudice to the government and to the public at large,” they added.
According to the complaint, the building on the property remained serviceable but was ordered demolished to make way for the 50-storey commercial building erected by Festina Holdings Inc.
Aside from depriving them of livelihood, the vendors said the city government lost the cultural value of the Divisoria as a people’s market. — with Peter Tabingo
