Presidential candidate and Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso remains upbeat about his election chances despite placing third among presidential aspirants in a recent survey.
He said Tuesday he will just continue to focus his attention in going around the country and reaching as many people as he can in order to win in next year’s election.
“Well, thank you very much. Even though I’m a not-so-big-time candidate, at least I’m still there, we’ll just go straight,” the Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer said, in a media interview after the flag-raising ceremonies at Manila City Hall Monday.
“For us, my only focus is to go around the country. It’s a big country politically. While we are geographically small, but politically, it’s a very challenging country because you must cross waters from one place to another most of the time. And we will try to reach as many people as possible, and hopefully, may God have mercy, we will win,” Moreno said with optimism.
The 47-year-old presidential aspirant made the statement when asked to comment about the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted December 1-6 where he and Senator Manny Pacquiao were tied in third place with an 8-percent rating each.
Meanwhile, Moreno on Monday asked his constituents in the city to continue to observe physical distancing and follow all health and safety guidelines to prevent a spike of COVID-19 cases in the capital.
He made the call after a granular lockdown was enforced in three Manila barangays where a slight increase of COVID-19 cases were monitored over the weekend.
Moreno pointed out that ever since he entered public service, he is used to being an underdog candidate since he has no resources to speak of, having been raised in the slums of Tondo where he was forced to scavenge for leftover food and later on collected trash and became a pedicab driver.
Be that as it may, he has always delivered on his campaign promises once elected as irrefutably shown by his many achievements in Manila, which he now promises to accomplish throughout the country if elected president.
“All my fights, it’s always like that (being the underdog). But for me, what matters are what we want to do in the country, can be seen in Manila,” Moreno stressed.
“(That is) the principle of governance. From a ‘dugyot’ city, we became competitive in the world not because of mere statements, but records will show. And you see now the development–tangible development. Manila became clean, orderly, governed. People are calm, crime is low. As you can see, records will show,” Moreno said.
Among Moreno’s achievements included: the modern Ospital ng Maynila, vertical housing like Tondominium and Binondominium, modern 10-story public school buildings, social services for senior citizens, and assistance to public school students and teachers in the form of allowances, tablets and free bandwidth, among others.
Business is also growing in Manila under Moreno — from a P20 to P30-billion average yearly investment, investors poured in P123 billion in the city during his first year as mayor, and another P147 billion in his second year.
“The pandemic has hit, but we are still not holding back. Development is still ongoing and I think this development-long term, short-term-will benefit people,” he said.
“So, these things are undeniable and its duplicable and scalable, the things that we can offer for the country and to the people of our country, to our fellow men,” Moreno said.
Moreno has earlier said that it is his love for the ordinary people that made him decide to apply for President of the Republic, to offer to the public a serious and highly-qualified candidate willing to change the system of governance in the country that was ruled mostly by elitist politics for the past 60 years.
It is for this reason that Moreno, his running mate Dr. Willie Ong and Aksyon Demokratiko senatorial slate Dr. Carl Balita, Samira Gutoc and Jopet Sison have embarked on a “Listening Tour” across the country.
They consult with fisher folk, farmers, public market vendors, drivers, as well as students and ordinary residents to learn of the real state of the masses in the rural areas and present their “Buhay at Kabuhayan” platform of governance.
“I just go down in the middle of their community, in the middle of the farm, in the middle of the fishery, in the population, in the city, in the barangay and so on and so forth. I want to listen to the people, talk to the people. And by listening to them, I learn a lot,” Moreno said.
“By the mercy of God, and with your help, if we are blessed, you will have a good, prudent and efficient government that gives priority to people. Because you are the only one I draw courage from – our countrymen,” he added.
The lockdown, on the other hand, is similar to the policy of the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force), when there is a bit of negligence and the Covid infection grows in one area, it is normal to lockdown that one area.
“So, we would continue to have those kinds of surgical lockdown because what we want is for the business to open, for people to work, for employment, we will gradually normalize,” Moreno said , in an interview over DZRH.
The Department of Health previously said the National Capital Region and most regions in the country will remain under Alert Level 2 status from December 16 to 31 amid declining Covid-19 cases.
“But we also need to be responsible. We still need to wear a face mask. The mask is a must. ‘That’s all we need. Then we should all get vaccinated,” Moreno said.
As of noon of December 26, the City of Manila has a total of 91active cases with 90,501 recoveries and 1,763 deaths. The Manila Health Department said they recorded 11 new active cases, five new recoveries and zero deaths for that day.
The three areas with the highest number of active Covid-19 cases are Tondo 1 with 29, San Andres with 12 and Pandacan and Sampaloc with seven each.
On Friday, December 24, the number of active cases in the city was at 78 with 10 new active cases, 181 recoveries and four deaths.
“But then again, as far as the general atmosphere of Manila, thank God, as of December 26 at 12pm, we have 91 active cases in our city. And thank God, nothing was recorded yesterday as of 12 o’clock who died. And our Covid beds in our hospitals and quarantine facilities are almost empty, and then our field hospital has almost ten people out of 344 bed capacity,” Moreno noted.
Moreno said he was happy to learn that the Food and Drug Administration has granted last week the emergency use authorization (EUA) of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11.
As what President Rodrigo Duterte stated in his Talk to the Nation address, Moreno also said that the City of Manila will continue to assist provinces lagging behind in their vaccination drive so that residents in those areas who remain unvaccinated may now take the jab and protect themselves from Covid-19.
“The city of Manila is preparing again. And if by chance the vaccine arrives, by January we can start at 5 to 11 years old. But for now, we are vaccinating at a very good rate 11-17-years-old and our general population, 148% in first dose and 137% in our second dose,” the 47-year-old Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer stressed.
“And we continue to share in our own little way, in vaccination in the province. It is like the president’s call to vaccinate and help cities like Manila that have already vaccinated many, to vaccinate other provinces,” Moreno said.
Moreno previously embarked on a massive vaccination drive that is open even to non-residents of the city, even giving COVID drugs like molnupiravir, remdesivir and tocilizumab for free to whoever needs the life-saving drugs.