Briones: Hard act to follow

IT’S all Francisco Moreno Domagoso’s fault.

How dare that former matinee idol, who used to appear in the daily variety show “That’s Entertainment” and then show off his body in titillating films in the 1990s, think that he could actually do some good as a politician?

Seriously.

Who the heck does he think he is? Clean up Manila because he beat former President Joseph Estrada in the mayoral race during the midterm elections last May? And yet he has. Sort of. Two weeks after wresting control of the country’s capital.

And the guy makes sure that everyone knows by posting updates of his activities in his social media accounts and holding press conferences every now and then. It helps to have many friends in the media who trumpet his every accomplishment.

Mayor Isko, as he is more popularly known, is not a neophyte politician. If you think he is an upstart, well, you’re wrong.

He was sworn in as a councilor for Manila’s first congressional district in 2008 yet. That was 21 years ago, or more than two decades to figure out how to address the ills that plague the densely populated bayside city. And before he became its chief executive, he served as vice mayor from 2007 to 2016, when he ran for senator and lost.

Even though he is not formally allied with President Rodrigo Duterte, he was appointed twice in the latter’s administration: first, as chairman of the board of the North Luzon Railways Corp. in July 2017 until his resignation in October that year; then as undersecretary for Luzon Affairs at the Department of Social Welfare and Development in May 2018 until his resignation five months later.

You have to give it to the former scavenger and pedicab driver. First ridiculed because he had only a high school diploma, Mayor Isko went on to obtain a business administration degree from the Makati-based International Academy of Management and Economics. He also took up policy courses at the University of the Philippines and law units at the Arellano University.

Oh, did you know that he was also sent to Harvard and Oxford for leadership programs?

And now, two weeks after taking the reins of the Manila City Hall, Mayor Isko has done what no one has done since the once Pearl of the Orient spiraled into decrepitude after its destruction in World War 2.

Let’s see... vendors that used to pack the four-lane Claro M. Recto Ave. in the Divisoria commercial district have been cleared, making the street once again passable.

No wonder then, our very own mayor, Edgardo Labella, was photographed helping clear a portion of a road that was blocked by a landslide in the mountain barangay of Tagbao.

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