He Scrounged For Food As A Boy. Now, He Hopes To Be Next President Of The Philippines

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Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno gestures after declaring his bid to run for president in a speech at a public school in the slum area near the place where he grew up in Manila, Philippines on Wednesday Sept. 22, 2021.





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His district as mayor is both posh and impoverished. It encompasses Old Manila with its Cathedral Spanish-era Intramuros fort, and the president’s Malacañang Palace. The district is also home to Tondo, the hard-scrabble neighborhood where he grew up an only child hauling trash, and scrounging for food that his mother is said to have «repurposed into family dinners. His father was a stevedore on the nearby docks.


The next president faces myriad challenges


Duterte’s successor stands to inherit weighty problems: the pandemic, a battered economy, long-entrenched poverty and decades-long insurgencies waged by communists and Muslim rebel groups.

In announcing his presidential bid, Moreno said were he to win the May 9, 2022 election, he would combat COVID-19, which has killed 37,000 in the Philippines, battle on behalf of the poor, and promote democracy.


He chose as his running Willie Ong, who made an unsuccessful bid for the Senate in 2019. A cardiologist, Ong has a huge social media base, and provides medical advice to Filipinos on a Facebook account that has more than 16 million followers.

«It’s politically unorthodox, but it makes sense, Moreno said of his choice for running mate.

If elected, Moreno says he’ll focus on resuscitating the economy while his vice president would focus on the pandemic.





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Isko Moreno dances with performers during former Philippine president and candidate for mayor of Manila Joseph Estrada’s campaign launch on March 31, 2013 in Manila. Moreno went on to become mayor of Manila City in 2019.





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«Yes, I grew up being poor, Moreno said. «But I have never been bad-mannered. Although I’ve lived in the trash, not once did I become foul-mouthed.

For his part President Duterte, who cannot seek a second term under the country’s constitution, has confirmed he will run for the vice presidency, a move his critics say is merely a bid to extend his time in power in the hope of avoiding a legal reckoning over his human rights record. The International Criminal Court, which Duterte scorns, has launched a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity in connection with the government’s drug war.

According to some analysts, as a candidate Moreno is perceived by the Duterte family as perhaps its toughest rival. In his brief time as mayor, he has also earned praise for cleaning up the streets and building new housing for the poor.


Moreno’s rags-to-riches story is also seen as inspirational, and his relative youth offers the promise of generational change in a country where 48% of the population of nearly 110 million people are under the age of 25.

«Isko resonates with the ‘regular guy’ image of Duterte minus the cursing and misogyny, says Jean Encinas-Franco, an associate professor of political science at the University of the Philippines. «He is also telegenic and youthful. Hence, it is easy to package him as representing change.