Manila Mayor Isko Moreno (Screenshot from Radyo Inquirer)
ANTIQUE, Philippines — Antique Gov. Rhodora Cadiao appealed to her constituents on Tuesday to support and pray for the success of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso in his quest for the presidency in the 2022 elections.
Moreno was a bit surprised when he arrived at the provincial capitol for a courtesy call at Cadiao’s office.
“Welcome to the province of Antique, your hometown,” Cadiao told Moreno in the presence of other provincial officials.
“Mr. President, we are so proud of you,” Cadiao added, as she handed Moreno a gift.
Moreno laughed, saying: “Mag-dilang anghel ka sana, Gov.”
Literally, that means “may you have an angel’s tongue” — that is, “may your words come true.”
Cadiao called on her constituents to support the 47-year-old Moreno in his quest to become the next president of the country.
“We are so proud of you and I hope you will be the next — after how many centuries? — the next president of Western Visayas,” she said.
“So, Yorme is an Antiquenion, is by blood an Antiquenion. He’s ours. He’s asking for your support and let us pray for his success, okay,” she added.
“Yorme” refers to Moreno. It’s syllables of “meyor,” the Filipino spelling of “mayor,” in reverse.
Antonio Agapito Legarda Jr., brother of House Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda, who represents Antique, handed a bag containing items to the visiting Manila official who then had lunch with the Antique governor.
“This is the one from Inday Loren. She said they will take care of you here Antique because you are a ‘kasimanwa’ [someone who shares the same roots]. We are looking forward to seeing you and now it’s a reality,” AA Legarda said, speaking in a mix of Filipino and English.
Later in the afternoon, Moreno, who is. the Aksyon Demokratiko standard bearer, held a town hall meeting with market vendors, traders, and businessmen in San Jose, Antique.
Joining Moreno in his visit to Antique were his running mate, Dr. Willie Ong, and senatorial bets Samira Gutoc of Marawi City, Dr. Carl Balita of Oriental Mindoro and Jopet Sison of Quezon City.
San Joaquin is the birthplace of Joaquin Domagoso, Moreno’s father, who in his youth went to Hamtic, Antique and later on tried his luck in Manila in the 1960s and worked as a stevedore in the ports of the national capital.
In an interview with reporters, Moreno vowed to focus on the minimum basic needs of the people in Western Visayas, with emphasis on projects that would improve the country’s human development index – health, education, housing, and jobs and livelihood.
The 47-year-old presidential aspirant said that, just like in Manila, an Isko Moreno presidency would support public education in Western Visayas by providing public school students with tablets and free bandwidth, school supplies and Covid hygiene kits. Public school teachers will also be given laptops and free bandwidth connection.
In alleviating the plight of the masses and at the same time protecting industries, Moreno said he would ask Congress to reduce the taxes of petroleum and electricity by 50 percent.
To address the perennial housing problem, he said the Moreno administration would emphasize socialized housing as the new focus of the Build, Build, Build (BBB) program.
“We can think of what we want to think for the betterment of our country. But for the first two years of that six years given a chance puro social services,” Moreno said.