“What destiny awaits Lacson and Moreno, and, at this crossroads, how they decide on their public service careers in the next few months are worth watching”
In our July 4 column titled “Let the games begin,” we listed down 10 to 11 names who, our sources said, are almost certain to be in the Bagong Pilipinas senatorial slate.
Politiko reprinted the list which first came out here in the Manila Standard, and since then, the “list” has become grist for talk shows with several political “analysts” accepting it as “the” list.
Of course nothing is yet official until the fat lady, so to speak, sings.
I took note of two persons in the list who I consider personal friends: Ping Lacson and Isko Moreno.
I stated Ping had yet to make a final decision, and Isko was not so keen on a senatorial run. Both comments came from personal conversations with the two, the former on June 24; the latter on July 1.
“Doers are better off not joining talkers,” I wrote then, which is exactly what I told the former mayor when we had a three hour-long conversation three days before.
It was also the reason why in 2007, after his third place showing in the presidential race of 2004, where GMA “won” with a little help from Hello Garci over the “king” FPJ, I asked then Sen. Lacson to consider running for mayor of Manila.
He shared the same surname as Arsenio H. Lacson, the legendary mayor who could have been president (instead of FM Sr.) in 1965 had he not died from a heart attack in 1962.
Ping Lacson rose to national prominence as PNP chief when, in a tenure abbreviated by the ouster of President Erap, he disciplined the agency and dismissed its errant cops, force-trimmed bulging waistlines that were symbols of police corruption, eliminated “kotong,” and in less than a year, elevated public esteem for what used to be “the” flagship of corruption victimizing rich and poor alike.
A doer, more than a talker Ping was, although, to his credit, his senatorial performance had been quite impressive, both in exposing massive corruption in government, and being the chamber’s eagle eye on the national budget.
But Ping chose re-election to the Senate instead in 2007, and has served three terms in all, continuously abstaining from pork barrel allocations his colleagues relished with gusto.
Yet despite his example and a Supreme Court decision on the PDAF after the hideous Napolitic scam, Congress just re-invented the “entitlements” and made them larger and larger.
Isko Moreno first parlayed a movie career to run for councilor of his native Tondo in Manila in 1998, and was on his second term when I first met him while I was a consultant to then Mayor Lito Atienza.
He later won as vice-mayor for three terms, and then ran successfully for the top local post in 2019.
Within weeks, he cleared Divisoria and Claro M. Recto of vendors who choked the streets of Manila’s busiest commercial district. These vendors were being fleeced daily by police, barangay and City Hall officials with decades-long impunity.
His pro-active work during the pandemic which included giving adequate care for constituents locked down in their homes was exemplary and became template for other cities in the NCR.
He built modern schools, condominiums and socialized housing for Manila’s poor, upgraded the Ospital ng Maynila to private hospital standards, while cleaning and lighting up the city in tasteful manner, among other notable achievements.
And he was ever-present during calamities like fires and floods, helping residents and dispensing relief, empathizing with their plight.
Local politics is more about fostering and strengthening relationships with one’s constituents.
Isko’s “hugot” stemmed from his dirt-poor origins in the slums of Tondo, where he had to scrounge for survival by scavenging, driving “padyak” conveyances, until good looks brought him to the entertainment world.
That popularity he was able to parlay into his first foray into local politics. But he kept improving himself with a hunger for knowledge through a step-by-step career into the helm of the nation’s capital.
Doers who have demonstrated competence are what we need as leaders. They start with a clear purpose on what they want to achieve as public servants, and doggedly pursue these ends.
Though fate may not have smiled on their presidential quests, I am privileged to have been part of the journey of these two doers.
What destiny awaits them, and, at this crossroads, how they decide on their public service careers in the next few months are worth watching.
