Mayor Isko Moreno steps in and Manila is never the same again

MOVE over, law-breaks and loiterers! There’s a new mayor in Manila – and he means business!

Like a superhero (I’m thinking, “The Mighty Thor”), he came just a week shy of being elected as mayor of Manila, with a sledgehammer in hand whacking gambling machines and throwing the first few blows at what he said was an illegally built barangay outpost. Just when all seems gray and hopeless, the new mayor swoops in and saves the day – or more particularly – Manila. 

Clearly, Francisco Moreno Domagoso, aka Isko Moreno, is not wasting a single moment of his three-year term. Barely two weeks since he took over, he presents a suspect arrested for allegedly extorting money from sidewalk vendors in his district. And while we are still wrapping our minds over the miracle that is Manila, now, he goes to Manila Zoo and feeds Mali, the elephant.  

People have been publicizing the city’s clean up all over social media. Apparently, the filthy Manila that we’ve known, grew up in (and oddly loved for sentimental reasons) is practically unrecognizable. I never thought I’d see the day when the streets of Divisoria and Carriedo that are packed with countless sidewalk vendors and are impenetrable to motor vehicles would become passable to vehicular and pedestrian traffic, clear of obstructions, and relatively clean. 

But now, I am seeing photos of the streets of Manila like it’s being taken from the pages of my mind’s dream! People have been posting photos of the before-and-after Manila streets and it seems so surreal! I can’t help but ask myself, how is that it took only weeks for Moreno to transform Manila while the previous line of mayors before him have done nothing – even remotely close –  to what he did?

Then I remember this young man’s background. This man is not some rich kid or a middle-class citizen who lived a normal, comfortable and traditional life where he grows up with parents who send him to school and gets home with food prepared and had his future planned – that may have been the life he dreamt of, because his life was anything but easy. He came from poverty. And that may have been the reason he knew exactly what the city needs. He knows Manila like the back of his hand.

Now, this the former scavenger and pedicab driver from the slums of Tondo is the youngest elected mayor of the city of Manila at 44 years old, the youngest-ever councilman (23 years old), and the youngest-ever elected vice mayor (32 years old) of the city.

He defeated former Manila mayors retired president Joseph Estrada and retired police general Alfredo Lim with a landslide victory of 357,925 votes – more than the numbers of Estrada and Lim combined.

The story of his years growing up in crippling poverty in the alleyways of Tondo to his big break in local showbusiness after being accidentally discovered by a talent scout during a neighbor’s wake is well known. 

I remember this young man as the fair-skinned mestizo when he stepped into the lights of show business during the ‘90s. He’s always been a humble soul and quite seemingly awkward then. I can’t blame him. He’s not used to that kind of life, let alone the quick turn of events that he got himself into. He starred in teenybopper films before doing more mature roles under Seiko Films. At his peak, he also played the beau of a young Claudine Barretto. At his most controversial, he was the poster boy of bare-skin flicks.

He stayed in showbiz just as until he was ready to climb the city’s political totem pole and his eventual foray into politics is the best thing that happened to Manila. Indeed, he came a long way from scavenging for scraps to cleaning up the city—both literally and figuratively – as their newly elected mayor. 

In the years I’ve watched my beloved city led by one mayor after another, I’ve always had these question lingering: will this city ever be rid of garbage, traffic and crime? Is there hope for Manila? Now, these questions have been answered and his name is “Mayor Isko.”

Thank you, Mayor Isko Moreno, and may all your plans – which I believe, is every Manileno’s dream – of a clean and safer Manila – come into fruition. Keep up the great work!

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Monet Lu is a Marikina-born, award-winning celebrity beauty stylist with his own chain of Monet Salon salons across Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultimately, Monet is known as an all-around artiste who produces sold-out fashion and awards shows as well as unforgettable marketing campaigns. Monet is also the founder of the revolutionary all-natural beauty products such as Enlighten, your solution to discoloration . To contact Monet, please visit www.monetsalon.com or email him at [email protected]