MANILA, Philippines — Manila Mayor Isko Moreno will temporarily stop his campaign tour around the country to focus on “saving people’s lives first.”
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno. Image from his Facebook account
During his press conference on Wednesday, Moreno was asked about what would happen to his listening tour, which he recently conducted as part of his presidential bid in the 2022 national elections.
Moreno said that he wanted to address the rising COVID-19 infections first, especially as Manila has seen a sharp increase from just around 70 to 90 active cases before the holiday season ended, to 990 on Tuesday.
“Hayaan mo na yang kampanya, yang politika sa kanila na yan, regalo ko na sa kanila yan. Okay nako,” the local chief executive said.
“Dito, magfocus lang tayo mabuhay ang tao, mabuhay ang tao, panatag ang tao, maramdaman ng tao na may gobyerno, ayun masaya nako dun,” he added.
According to Moreno, he believed that the presidency is destiny — that he or she who is destined to be the winner will be victorious, no matter what.
“Ano naman yan eh, destiny yan, kahit na anong mangyari. Basta importante, gampanan muna natin ang tungkulin natin,” he noted.
Moreno admitted during the early part of his press conference that they have their hands full with the rising infections in the city, and with the slew of big events in Manila — like the upcoming Feast of the Black Nazarene and the Sto. Niño festival in Tondo.
The city government has agreed with the management of the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene to close the Quiapo Church to the public on January 9 — which means that the traditional traslacion would not be held.
Moreno also recently signed an executive order for a liquor ban that would run from January 8, 6:00 p.m., up to January 10, 6:00 a.m.
Manila and the rest of the National Capital Region are currently under Alert Level 3 after a sharp uptick in COVID-19 infections was observed, which experts believe may be due to the more transmissible Omicron variant.
As of Tuesday, the country’s active COVID-19 infections swelled to 29,809, after the Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,434 new infections.
The increase came after a relatively low number of daily cases before the holidays — ranging from 300 to 500 with the active case count down to below 10,000.