Mayor Lim vs watch-your-car boy? Now, that’s ‘dirty’

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim on Friday dismissed as a “dirty trick” the supposed candidacy of a certain Rodolfo Gayola Lim, whose name earlier cropped up as one of his challengers in the coming elections.

“When we found out that a certain Lim has filed a certificate of candidacy, we had it checked. This is probably a ploy to confuse the voters. Because if you only write ‘Lim,’ then it will become a stray vote,” Lim told reporters Friday.

The Commission on Elections recently issued a resolution disqualifying 63 nuisance candidates and 10 ineligible candidates—including Rodolfo Gayola Lim—who wanted to be in the ballot for the May elections.

“According to his certificate of candidacy, he lives in a building in Escolta. When we asked around, this person turned out to be a drunkard who sleeps on the street. And he makes a living as a watch-your-car boy,” Lim said.

“So how would he be able to run a campaign? Who fielded him? This is a dirty trick,” said the reelectionist mayor, a former Manila police chief who earned the moniker Dirty Harry for his controversial crime-fighting methods.

Mayor Lim, 82, has found a main challenger in former President Joseph Estrada, 75.

Ric de Guzman, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the Lim camp expects more dirty tricks to come out with the onset of the campaign period.

“The focus of the campaign is about who really has done something for Manila and who is just offering promises,” De Guzman said in a statement.