11-0, Manila’s target in 2022

It is no secret that Mayor Isko “Yorme” Moreno has been out of his office at the Manila City Hall more often that not after he filed his official candidacy to become the next President of the country. As one of the incumbent government officials running in next year’s elections, Yorme is now deep in his campaign sorties as the presidential standard-bearer of Aksyon Demokratiko. Yorme along with his vice presidential runningmate Doc Willie Ong, have started going to provincial trips for their election bids on May 9, 2022.

Yorme could afford to go around on presidential campaign this early having his Vice Mayor, Dr. Maria Sheila “Honey” Lacuna-Pangan, at the helm of Manila City Hall. As the designated officer-in-charge, Vice Mayor Lacuna has been keeping operations, services and work at Manila City Hall un-interrupted. A dermatologist by profession, the “doctor is in” to keep the city government machinery whirring to serve the needs of Manileños, especially while the pandemic lingers on.

Like Yorme, the 56-year-old doctor-turned politician is also the official candidate of Aksyon Demokratiko in next year’s elections as the party’s mayoral bet in Manila. If she wins in the mayoral contest, it would be the first in the history that a woman hizzoner would lead the more than 300 years old capital city of the Philippines.

Dra. Lacuna, however, is in for a tough fight to become the next mayor of Manila where seven other candidates have also filed their certificates of candidacy (COC). One of them is retired Manila Police General Elmer Jamias as the mayoral candidate of the People’s Reform Party (PRP).

Vice Mayor Lacuna and Jamias were the featured guests during our virtual news forum last Wednesday at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay via Zoom Webinar and live-streamed in our Facebook page. The two mayoral candidates will have to win the hearts and minds of around 750,000 registered voters out of 1.1 million residents of the city of Manila.

Lacuna is not a newbie in politics. After all, she is the daughter of once Manila Vice Mayor Danilo Lacuna during the term of the late Manila Mayor Gemiliano “Mel” Lopez. Incidentally, Rep. Manny Lopez, son of the late Mayor Lopez, withdrew as PDP-Laban mayoral candidate but will seek re-election instead as Congressman in the first district of Manila.

Lacuna started her own political career as a three-term councilor from the 4th district of Manila representing Sampaloc. She subsequently became Vice Mayor of former president Joseph Estrada in 2016. Seeking his second term at Manila City Hall, Mayor Estrada picked then Lacuna who was on third and last term as Councilor to become his Vice Mayoral runningmate. Moreno, who was then Mr. Estrada’s Vice Mayor, was also on his third and last term. Moreno run but lost as one of the senatorial guest candidates of the PDP-Laban ticket of former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Jamias who is turning 60 years old next month first run but lost as the vice mayoral runningmate of the late Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim during the May 2019 elections. It was in the same elections when Moreno and Lacuna won together as a Mayor and Vice Mayor tandem. The Moreno-Lacuna team frustrated the bids of Lim and Jamias tandem as well as ended the stay at City Hall of Mayor Estrada.

Backed by lessons learned from his maiden foray in politics, Jamias cited his police assignments all the way to his experience as police administrator qualified him to best govern a crime-prone city in order to restore Manila as the most attractive place for business and tourists. Jamias was among the first batch of graduates in 1986 of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) in Silang, Cavite.

Born and raised in Manila, his life story as a beat patrolman rising through the police ranks was even turned into a movie entitled “Ang Barako ng Maynila.” In the English slang, “barako” roughly refers to being a macho man. Mayor Jinggoy Estrada who portrayed the role of Jamias in this movie in 2001 later got elected as Senator.

Serving much of his tour of duty at the erstwhile Western Police District, known for being dubbed as “Manila’s Finest,” Jamias acknowledged as his role model officers and gentlemen the late Police Generals James Barbers and Vicente Vinarao.

As then the chief of Eastern Police District, Jamias proudly recalled having supervised the police security motorcade for President-elect Duterte from Pasig City for the oath taking at Malacañang Palace. He was assigned for one year in Davao City where he first met then Mayor Duterte. A few months later, Jamias also took his oath before President Duterte for a one-star rank promotion before he eventually retired in 2017.

The official campaign period for national and local candidates will start respectively on Feb. 8 and March 25 next year.

As of last Wednesday, Jamias disclosed, he will announce his vice mayoral runningmate and complete slate of six councilors in the six districts of Manila on or before Nov. 15. As far as Aksyon Demokratiko candidates in Manila are concerned, Lacuna will have Manila Rep. Yul Servo as her Vice Mayor with their teams of local party Asenso Manileño.

If they win next year, Lacuna vows to continue the good programs and projects that she and Yorme prepared together as early as in 2017. She admitted having joined Yorme, who treats her as a co-equal “partner,” when they prepared their 10-year vision to fully develop the premier city of Manila.

Rumors flew thick that other Manila mayoral wannabes like Jamias would soon also withdraw their candidacies. However, Jamias vehemently doused cold waters on the rumors. He claimed though certain big businessmen sounded him out to quit his mayoral race: “Hindi po ako aatras sa laban na ito ng Barako ng Maynila.”

For her part, Lacuna vows to carry the ball in their turf city for the Yorme-Doc Willie tandem and entire ticket of Aksyon Demokratiko-Asenso Manileño of one Congressman per district, and six councilors each districts. She believes they can hit their 11-0 target in 2022 elections.