Isko Moreno confident of pulling surprise

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Isko Moreno is confident he would be able to “pull a surprise” in the presidential elections on May 9, an official allied with him said.

The standard bearer of Aksyon Demokratiko was sure about gathering the support of the so-called silent majority who would vote for him, said party chairman Ernesto Ramel Jr.

“The silent majority that Mayor Isko is talking about are the people on the ground. Everywhere he goes, you could feel that people are really drawn to him, they like him,” he told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News last Wednesday night.

Ramel talked about Moreno’s upset win as Manila mayor in 2019, wherein election surveys placed him third.

“Just to point to our local experience, when Mayor Isko ran in 2019, three weeks before the election he was third with 20 percent, then the late mayor (Alfredo) Lim was at 24 percent and Erap (former president and Manila mayor Joseph Estrada) was at 45 percent,” he recalled.

Moreno emerged third among presidential candidates in previous pre-election surveys, except in the one conducted by Pulse Asia where he slipped to fourth.

Ramel decried the Pulse Asia survey result and asserted that Moreno’s Easter Sunday press conference, when he challenged rival Vice President Leni Robredo to back out of the presidential race, had nothing to do with his dipping numbers.

“I really don’t see the correlation… After that (press conference) our base just really got fired up,” Ramel said. “Those who got angry or ranting against us on social media weren’t ours to begin with, they were supporters of the Vice President.”

He added the controversial press briefing helped Moreno get his message across of being the “alternative” candidate amid the conflict between the supporters of Robredo and Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Meanwhile, the party might file a petition for writ of mandamus to compel the Bureau of Internal Revenue to fulfill its duty of collecting an estimated P203 billion worth of tax debt from the estate of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Ramel said.

He stressed that Aksyon would force the BIR to do its job of collecting the tax debt from the Marcoses “with all its might.”