Presidential candidate and Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso and the rest of the Aksyon Demokratiko slate ended on Saturday their 90-day campaign with a miting de avance at the Moriones Linear Park in Tondo, Manila, marked by a symbolic show of gratitude and celebration of life, hope, and courage.
Moreno stressed that the choice of venue his way of showing gratitude to neighbors, friends, and residents in the area where he started his journey as a public servant.
“I am indebted to the people of Tondo wherever I am in the world of public service. That’s where I started, that’s where I’ll end the fight. I started there (as a councilor) and I’ll end (my presidential campaign) there,” Moreno said, in an earlier interview.
Moreno said holding their miting de avance in Tondo holds a deeper meaning, for it is also a celebration of his life’s journey, of hope for a better future, and of courage to overcome life’s adversities.
Moreno was born to a poor family in the slums of Tondo, Manila. His father Joaquin Domagoso, who came from Antique province was a stevedore, while his mother, Rosario Moreno who came from Maasin town in Leyte province, washed clothes for neighbors and relatives to help earn a living.
At age 10, he found alternative sources of income to help his family by scavenging for old newspapers and used bottles, and later on drove a pedicab and rummaged through restaurant garbage bins for “pagpag” (leftover food), which his mother would recook for dinner.
He experienced the discrimination and the inequalities heaped upon the poor, but through all this deprivation, Moreno said he never lost his faith in God.
“In the midst of poverty, in extreme hunger, when your stomach ached more than my prayer, I never once offended God, I did not insult him, I did not forsake him, and I did not insult his disciples, because I have unshakable faith in the Lord God that your efforts will be rewarded with the blessings you desire,” he said.
And as fate would have it, Moreno eventually became an actor, the youngest city councilor in 1998, the youngest vice mayor in 2007, and youngest Manila mayor in 2019.
While in public office, he pursued higher studies, earning a degree in Business Administration at the International Academy of Management and Economics (IAME); two years of law school at the Arellano University; Master’s degree in Public Administration at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), and Local Legislation and Local Finance at the University of the Philippines (UP). Moreno also has post-graduate studies at the Harvard University under Executive Education Program, Strategic leadership program at the Oxford University,
This is the message that he always strives to drive wherever the campaign takes him, that any person can go to great lengths in life for as long as they never lose hope, work hard and have faith in God.
“It happened to me, it can happen to your son. Even the child of the poor, as long as the parent works hard and perseveres, the child works hard, something will come in life, As long as there is life, there is hope. So don’t give up on life” Moreno said.
And it is also this vision that drove Moreno to seek the presidency, to give the ordinary people like him the equal opportunity to better their lives and their children under a fair and honest government.
“It was not lofty ambition that pushed my decision, but because of the pathetic condition of our town,” he said.
If elected president, Moreno has vowed to pursue a “Life and Livelihood” economic policy that aims to address poverty, hunger, unemployment, inequality and social injustice through the effective, efficient and prudent management of government resources under an open, transparent and inclusive administration, as spelled out under his 10-point Bilis Kilos Economic Agenda.
To achieve this, Moreno’s administration will focus on building more public housing like Tondominium and Binondominium; more public schools like the new Manila Science High School; and more public hospitals like the Bagong Ospital ng Maynila. These infrastructure projects will in turn create more jobs and opportunities for Filipinos.
Besides providing the minimum basic needs of the people, Moreno also vowed an accelerated infrastructure program that will be focused in areas or provinces with low human development index to bring about a more inclusive economic growth.
“By the mercy of God, with your help, I will give only a simple government. All I will do is cheap goods, cheap electricity, cheap crude oil, work, housing, school, hospital, the conversation is over. Only people, only people, only people,” he said.
“You will feel, that every day, when you experience that you are about to fall, you will see a wall that is called a government that you can lean on when you need it. That is the government I will give you,” Moreno said.
And this vision and aspiration for a better future for every Filipino all started in the slums of Tondo, where a young destitute boy dreamed of rising up from poverty, worked hard to achieve it, and is now dreaming even more to change the lives of the masses who have started life like him.
“Life, hope, courage, and absolute faith in God. This is Mayor Isko’s miting de avance,” Moreno’s camp said.
