MANILA, Philippines — Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer and Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno claimed the "underdog" title in the presidential derby on Tuesday but claimed he was unfazed by survey results showing he was tied for third place with Sen. Manny Pacquiao after garnering just 8% overall votes.
This comes after survey results by private pollster Pulse Asia from December 6 to 11 suggested that Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of the ousted dictator, and Vice President Leni Robredo were the leading candidates seated firmly in first and second place respectively.
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“Well, thank you very much. And at least even though I’m a pipitsuging candidate, at least I’m there. We'll just keep moving forward,” Moreno told reporters in Filipino during an interview after the flag-raising ceremonies at Manila City Hall when asked for his reaction to the results.
“For us, my only focus is to go round and round. It’s a big country politically. While we are geographically small, but politically, it’s a very challenging country because you must cross waters from one place to another most of the time. And we will try to reach as many people as possible, and hopefully, if it's in God's will, we will win."
The Manila chief is far from an underdog, however. Though he ranked third with just eight percent voter support overall, he was also the leading "alternative" candidate for voters whose original first picks were to end up not pursuing their candidacy later on. Unsurprisingly, he also led Robredo 17% to 14% among voters in Metro Manila.
But Moreno claimed anyway that he has always been an underdog candidate since he entered public service because he has no resources to speak of after being raised in the slums of Tondo where he was "forced to scavenge for leftover food and later collected trash and became a pedicab driver."
Moreno, who proudly refers to himself as a middle-class candidate, disclosed earlier that his net worth stands at P70 million.
On Monday, the capital city's chief executive again touted his accomplishments in Manila City, saying he was confident these could be replicated on a national level under his leadership.
“All my fights, it’s always like that, being the underdog. But for me anyway, what we want to do in the country, it can already be seen in Manila,” Moreno said.
“That is the principle of governance. From a ‘dugyot’ city, we became competitive in the world, not because of mere statements but records will show. And you see now the development, tangible development. Manila became clean, orderly, governed. People are calm, crime is low. As you can see, records will show," explained Moreno.
Moreno's angling as Manila City mayor follows the line adopted by President Rodrigo Duterte, himself a former mayor, in 2016: that the supposed gains of good governance on the local level can be achieved on a national scale.
"It’s no secret how Davao achieved progress. A little courage is needed. Courage to put in place those who take advantage of others, those who break the law, those who oppress. It’s peaceful in Davao. You just need to instill discipline and determination," Duterte was quoted as saying in a political ad aired in 2015.
"More people found employment, children were sent to school, every family became happy. This can happen in the entire Philippines too."
The similarities between the two tough-talking mayors aren't surprising: veteran political strategist Lito Banayo, who played a key role on the campaign team of Duterte at the time, is now the campaign manager of Moreno after all.
But Moreno said that he wanted to offer the public a "serious" candidate willing to change what he said was "the system of governance in the country that was ruled mostly by elitist politics for the past 60 years."
Despite his stand against elitist politics, though, Moreno had previously been supportive of the administration's programs and policies, including its "war on drugs" and dolomite white sand beach in Manila Bay. However, he has also been a vocal critic of the administration's face shield rule in the city of Manila.
Most recently, he admitted he would welcome President Rodrigo Duterte into his Senate slate with open arms, months after the tensions first flared between the two.
“I will personally vote for President Duterte for senator. And I will be grateful, honored, and humbled to have somebody like the president in our slate as an additional candidate for senator,” Moreno said in early December during an ambush interview in Lapu-Lapu City.
In the same interview Monday, he went on to highlight his "listening tour" where his Aksyon Demokratiko slate consults with regular people around the country to get to know their situations.
“Whatever happens, I will just go down in the middle of their community, in the middle of the farms, in the middle of the fisheries, with the people in the cities and barangays and so on and so forth. I want to listen to the people, talk to the people. And by listening to them, I learn a lot,” said Moreno.