Yorme is back

On May 22, a viral video showed a backhoe scooping up huge piles of garbage along C.M. Recto in Manila’s Divisoria district.

Online comments expressed thanks – not to the current city administration, but to incoming mayor Francisco Domagoso.

The returning “yorme,” better known as Isko Moreno, was not the one behind the Divisoria cleanup. But he was happy to consider it as preparation of Manileños for his return.

Yorme Isko clobbered his incumbent rival and former vice mayor, Honey Lacuna-Pangan in the May 12 polls, garnering 529,507 votes against her 190,315.

Moreno visited The STAR office last Monday for our online show “Truth on the Line,” during which he outlined his priorities for his return to city hall.

Cleaning up the city is foremost, and it isn’t just because he used to be a scavenger eating pagpag or discarded leftover food in Manila in his childhood.

Cleaning up also means a return to ridding several streets and sidewalks in high-density areas of both human and non-human obstructions.

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Moreno has just started giving media interviews again. He admitted avoiding interviews during the campaign to avoid a repeat of the flak that was generated by his comments on Leni Robredo during the 2022 presidential race.

For this year’s elections, he endorsed and says he voted for Robredo’s candidates Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan. Moreno endorsed his partymate, staunch anti-Duterte critic Antonio Trillanes for Caloocan mayor. But Moreno was also joined on stage by Vice President Sara Duterte and Imee Marcos. Later, Moreno endorsed pro-Duterte bets Camille Villar and Rodante Marcoleta. But he also pushed for Alyansa candidates including Benhur Abalos.

The embrace of different political colors not unexpectedly fueled speculation that Moreno could be eyeing a second bid as well – for the presidency in 2028.

But he maintains that this time, he’s sticking with Manila – something that he says he has promised to city residents especially the elderly. He and his aides are crafting a 10-year plan for various development projects in the city.

Off-camera, Moreno also pointed out that victory is difficult for anyone making a second stab at the presidency in this country.

So he’s focusing on the city whose residents – going by his decisive win – missed him.

There’s a special place in his heart for senior citizens. With the crime rate in the city at over 60 percent, Moreno intends to tap cops he call “antigo” or retirees from the Manila Police Department as force multipliers.

The “antigo” (antique) team, he says, can help keep people safe particularly in high-density areas such as the University Belt. There will be no age limit for the antigos, he says; anyone with the willingness and capability to work will be welcome.

The antigos can also assist in carrying out the recalibrated anti-drug campaign of Marcos 2.0, focusing on neighborhood drug pushers, but without the bloodshed of the past.

Addressing demand for prohibited drugs is more complicated, requiring a whole-of-everything approach, from the family to schools to the community, civic groups and government agencies. It requires addressing poverty – a challenge in Manila, which has a massive population of informal settlers.

Having been born to extreme poverty, Moreno knows the importance of providing sustainable livelihoods, generating jobs through more businesses, and keeping youths preoccupied with positive activities and spaces for healthy recreation.

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He is vowing to crack down on corruption in business and permit processing. Street and sidewalk clearing operations will be revived to ease vehicular traffic – a bane, he points out, for ordinary commuters and businesses. But displaced vendors will be allotted streets to continue plying their wares.

His first term as mayor is remembered for those clearing operations, with his frequent warnings to stubborn troublemakers – folks he called tolongges, many of whom weren’t even Manila residents, he pointed out (he was right) – to obey the rules or get out of his city.

Having been born and bred in Manila, and working in the city throughout my entire adult life until late 2023 when our office moved to Parañaque, I can attest that under Yorme’s watch, for the first time, the city’s streets became cleaner and free of obstructions even in crowded Divisoria. The parks were revived with sufficient lighting and green spaces were developed.

When he left city hall, the backsliding was palpable, and I’m putting this kindly.

Moreno’s stint as mayor had its controversies and criticisms, and he drew heavy criticism from the kakampinks in the 2022 race.

But local government officials are judged by the quality of basic services: garbage collection and overall cleanliness, traffic management, peace and order, ease of doing business (and availment of state aid), public health care and education, and yes, even street lighting.

I can understand why, despite all the issues raised against him by his rivals and critics, Manila residents missed Yorme and gave him a landslide win.

There is also, of course, his compelling true story of rising literally from the dumps to city hall, which would appeal to a constituency with a large percentage of low-income families.

Joining The STAR staff for a snack after our Truth on the Line interview, Yorme detailed his kariton route in the city in his youth, recalling the differences in the types of garbage, mostly discarded paper, that he could sell for cash. Being familiar myself with city streets and the various ways of using paper, I knew he was telling the truth.

Now he’s mayor of the city, with a college degree and attendance at sessions in schools such as the University of the Philippines, Harvard and Oxford.

You can understand why Manileños are impressed.

Yorme is back; tolongges, you’ve been warned.

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