Who is Isko Moreno?
Francisco Moreno Domagoso was born on October 24, 1974 and he grew up in Tondo, Manila. He was the only son of a stevedore from Antique province. He attended a funeral wake when a talent manager in the Philippine movies saw him. He burst onto the stage of Philippine public life in 1993 as a host on a youth-themed television variety show called That’s Entertainment.
How did he start his public career?
He adopted the stage name “Isko Moreno,” and this has worked for him because it is easy to recall. “Isko” is a nickname or common diminutive of his real name “Francisco.” He did not use his last name Domagoso as it was difficult to spell. Instead, he used his middle name and his mother’s maiden name, Moreno. Some celebrity news writers have remarked that he probably took the name “Moreno” in homage to the empresario German Moreno, the executive producer of That’s Entertainment, who became a father figure to him. However, Isko Moreno’s facial features resembled that of another actor from Philippine Cinema in the 1950s, Oscar Moreno. They share the strong angular face, same aquiline nose, and the widow’s peak.
Aside from being a TV presenter, Isko Moreno also landed roles in movies that were referred to as “sexually titillating (or ST) films. He cultivated a showbiz persona of a streetwise tough-talking ladies’ man. From this celebrity persona, it was not difficult to transition to the persona of a streetwise, tough-talking anti-crime politician.
What was the first elective public office he held?
Isko Moreno is ambitious and hardworking. Only five years after he began working in Philippine showbusiness, he ran for and won a seat in the Manila City Council. He balanced his work as a public official while maintaining an active showbiz career. He served three full terms in the city council.
What is his educational background?
While he was serving as city councilor of Manila, he lay low from showbiz to obtain a business administration degree from the International Academy of Management and Economics in Makati. Later, he took non-degree courses at the University of the Philippines in local legislation and local finance, and still later, he studied public administration at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pilipinas. These courses later allowed him to apply for a short diploma course at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University and the Said Business School of Oxford University. He began studying law at the Arellano University School of Law but quit after only two years to run as vice mayor of Manila in 2007.
Is he fit for a national office?
At his age of 47, he is certainly qualified to run for the presidency. Any person who wishes to run for the presidency must be at least 40 years of
age on the day of the election, according to the Philippine Constitution. As for relevant experience, Isko Moreno has served nine consecutive years as vice-mayor of the city of Manila, a post he won for the first time in 2007 by a clear lead of 80,000 votes. But then again, popularity is not the equivalent of experience and competence. His detractors feel that his experience as a locally elected official may not be sufficient for him to be an effective president.
What is his political party affiliation?
Isko Moreno is a political butterfly. Detractors say he joins political parties only for his advantage but leaves it when a bigger and better political party offers more advantage.
On his first term as vice-mayor, he ran and served on the ticket of Danny Lacuna who was running for mayor under a local political party Asenso Manileño. On his second term, he ran under the Nacionalista party on the ticket of Alfredo Lim who ran for Mayor. On his last term as vice-mayor, he ran under the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) with Joseph Estrada who ran for Mayor.
In 2015, Isko Moreno vied for a national office and ran for a seat in the Senate of the Philippines. His service of 9 years in the Manila City Council and his service for 9 years as Vice-Mayor (and thus, as head of the City Council) gave him enough law-making experience. But he lost his bid for the Senate. Although he was popular as a celebrity and as an actor, his celebrity status did not translate into enough votes to rank among the top 12. He ranked only 16th in the senate race.
He was appointed by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte as Chair of the board of the NorthRail and a year later, he was appointed as Undersecretary for Luzon Affairs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
How does he project himself?
Youthful leader with vision
In the local elections in 2018, Isko Moreno ran as Mayor of Manila. In his campaign, he appealed to the younger segment of voters who were distrustful and wary of the traditional and older politicians he ran against. It was a three-way contest. He had positioned himself as a better alternative for young voters who did not wish to vote for the octogenarians Alfredo Lim and Joseph Estrada whom he accused of incompetence.
Empathetic leader
His leadership style relied heavily on his personal and relational skills. Voters were naturally attracted to him because he is good-looking and he projected himself as a man of vision and action, a public official who has not lost touch with the desires of the common tao, of Juan and Juana dela Cruz. He promised to clean up Manila, to ensure that public services were available and reliable. He poised himself as a David battling those two political Goliaths and won. Moreno garnered half of all votes cast.
Capable of delivering reliable public service
In 2022, having served just one term as Mayor of the city of Manila, he is running for president with Dr. Willie Ong as his vice-president under the political party Aksyon Demokratiko. He is relying on his newly-gained popularity as a public official with an effective response to the pandemic. And with a medical doctor as his running mate, he seeks to assure voters of a better national response to the pandemic.
Delivering on campaign promises
He promised to revitalize the city and rehabilitate its many attractions. In January 2022, he re-opened the newly refurbished Manila Zoo. Public areas such as the Liwasang Bonifacio are clean and well-lit. And historic bridges such as the Jones Bridge has been retrofitted. Even the crumbling Ospital ng Maynila has received a much-deserved renovation. All these are fulfillment of his campaign promises.
Innovative vaccination programs
To increase its vaccination success, the city of Manila has administered vaccinations even to non-Manila residents. It has initiated home vaccination for senior citizens and chronically ill individuals. He has fully supported the Department of Health’s efforts to make vaccines accessible by launching vaccine sites at popular drugstore chain Mercury Drug and in big malls across the city. The city of Manila has opened a drive-thru location for vaccine booster shots at the Quirino Grandstand in the Luneta.
Concerns and criticisms: Is Moreno just another Duterte in the making?
Anti-Communist stance
It’s more than his rough and tough talking and his stern anti-crime stance that makes a lot of people think of him as another Rodrigo Duterte in the making. Early on in his term as a mayor, when there was a controversy about a police report stating that the Communist rebel New People’s Army was openly recruiting in the country’s state universities and colleges, Moreno echoed Duterte’s open disdain of leftists and left-leaning cause-oriented groups such as the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the National Democratic Front.
Pro-LGBT policies
Unlike Duterte, however, Moreno has not been reported to have made sexist or sexually inappropriate jokes. He has even signed an ordinance protecting members of the LGBT community from discrimination and abuse especially within the context of employment and the workplace even when he has openly stated that he does not personally support the idea of same-sex marriage. While to non-Filipinos this might seem like a contradiction, it is a clever way to court the LGBT community without alienating the traditional Roman Catholic voters.
Moreno has never openly declared his political stance on national issues. His political party affiliations do not give any indication of his likely political or ideological leanings, either because like most Filipino politicians, he is a bit of a political butterfly, joining and leaving political parties whenever it suits his political ambition.
Lack of a comprehensive stance on national issues
Moreno has revealed a 10-point program of work if he is elected, but Moreno has never openly declared his political stance on national issues. His political party affiliations do not give any indication of his likely political or ideological leanings, either because like most Filipino politicians, he is a bit of a political butterfly, joining and leaving political parties whenever it suits his political ambition.
Fluid and changing political party affiliation
Moreno was formerly a member and ran under the Nacionalista Party, then he left the Nacionalista Party and joined and ran under the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), but he also left that party to establish his own local political party called Asenso Manileño. When he ran for senator, he did so as a guest of Grace Poe’s Partido Galing at Puso and also a guest candidate of Joseph Estrada’s political party Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).
Openly critical of the national government’s pandemic response
He has been openly and vocally critical of President Duterte’s many pandemic policies especially when these are implemented by the Department of Health. Under his leadership, however, the city of Manila has reported meeting its target of vaccinating 70% of its 1.9 million resident population or around 760,000 individuals fully vaccinated.
Courting pro-Duterte supporters
Early in the political season, when the incumbent Philippine president was considering running for Vice-President in the 2022 elections, Isko Moreno declared that he was willing to endorse President Duterte for Vice President. This is common behavior among candidates for the presidency who have no strong political party backing—they support and endorse candidates from other parties in the hope of getting support for their own campaign. In announcing that he will run for president and that he was willing to endorse the vice-presidential candidacy of President Rodrigo Duterte, Isko Moreno was certainly making clear that he was seeking support from the Diehard Duterte Supporters (DDS) who are no longer fielding any candidate for the presidency.
What he has going for him: Personality and charm
With his combination of mestizo screen idol good looks and tough-guy persona, he certainly caters to Philippine voters’ tastes in the same way that Joseph Estrada and Rodrigo Duterte did. What people find refreshing about Isko Moreno is his lack of pretense. He is a married man with five children, and there has not been any hint of sexual misconduct or sexual impropriety in all the years he has been in the limelight. He comes across as authentic and honest especially about his roots, the poverty of his past and his ambition. While he has declared a net worth of about ₱70M, a far cry from his days of scrounging around in garbage dumps in Tondo, Manila, he has not lost touch with his “masa” upbringing and this lends him charm. He does not speak English with a smooth drawl or twang but he is well-read and certainly well-educated in practical governance.
Others think his campaign is too gimmicky. To kick-off his campaign, he recorded and collaborated with rap artists to produce a video, Nais Ko, capitalizing on the poverty of his childhood in Tondo. Some critics have pointed out that with his P70 million-peso net worth, he has advanced too far from Tondo to claim that he can represent the poorer Filipinos.
Adelaimar C. Arias Jose is a lawyer and writer from the Philippines. She is a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman from which she obtained her undergraduate and law degrees and where she is finishing her master’s degree in creative writing. She is an author of fiction and her stories have been published in literary journals in the Philippines. Her area of interests are Philippine history, politics, and social culture.