Manila City Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso tours parts of the Bicol Region. Photo from Isko Moreno’s Office
Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso on Thursday said he’d rather attract modest but organic crowds on his provincial trips than bribe tens of thousands of people to cheer for him.
“I mean, why would I go crazy over 40,000 people coming out for me when in fact I only paid them P500 each?” the Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer said in an interview on state-run PTV.
Domagoso seemed to be alluding to reports that supporters of former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were captured on camera queuing up to receive money in envelopes during a rally in Nueva Ecija. Gov. Aurelio Umali later claimed it was for cash aid distribution.
Another presidential candidate, Vice President Leni Robredo, has been staging mammoth rallies attended by tens of thousands of people around the country.
Domagoso described his campaign to be “retail-style,” involving motorcades, rallies or town hall meetings and other activities in “out-of-the-way places,” saying he’d rather go directly to the “silent majority.”
The 47-year-old former actor said he honestly believed that the silent majority would gravitate to him and become the game-changer in the May elections.
He said this was why he remained unfazed by survey results showing him lagging behind Marcos, who has a commanding lead in recent polls, and Robredo, a distant second but whose campaign is galvanized by huge turnouts for her rallies.
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