Isko’s Manila: Howmuch change is possible?

The headline read “Moreno supports Duterte’s order to reclaim public roads.” The media has it backwards. The sequence of events suggests it should be “Duterte supports Moreno’s actions to reclaim public roads.”

Just the same, Mayor Isko Moreno of Manila looms as a counterpoint to President Duterte. Mayor-gazing is gaining significance in the context of President-watching. When Moreno was asked to comment on the idea of giving Mr. Duterte emergency powers to solve the traffic problem, he said he agrees to give such temporary powers, but curiously added that it should be in the context of the balance of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary.

One good reason why civic gaze should be shifted downward to the city or municipal level is that the contours of the national strategy and outcomes are pretty much an uneventful continuation of the firsthalf performance of the Duterte administration. Mr. Duterte and his Cabinet secretaries and bureau directors are stuck in an ocean of promised tasks, where progress is hardly perceptible. Mayors are in smaller lakes where movement is visible and even exhilarating. The quality of life of citizens, happily, is a compound of the performance of the national government and the local government. At Mr. Duterte’s half-time, the performance of the local government may be a reasonable source of optimism.

We must give credit to the electorate that started it all by electing mayors worth watching in the last local elections. It still was a repudiation of the “establishment” that they started with the election of Rodrigo Duterte in May 2016. They followed through with mayors in May 2019. And where the people had the courage to bet on

the dark horses, the results have been so far spectacular.

Isko Moreno of Manila is like a mayor on steroids, churning impressive actions on a daily basis, which are reported and magnified by the media. The low-hanging fruits are intended to buy time and public trust and confidence. He has been formulating his plans in his head over the past 20 years. He has been validating his plans through the successes and failures of three mayors—Lito Atienza, Alfredo Lim and Joseph Estrada. In fact, when he talks and acts, one can sense he has assimilated some element of the style of these mayors. Which is why he has been so powerfully mayor-like in the way he has acted from day one.

But the foundation of Isko’s resonance as a mayor is his deep understanding of the psychology of the poor, the psychology of the politicians and the psychology of the syndicates that mediate between the two. This should allow him the dexterity of keeping them in some balance of interest, almost like a traffic policeman who uses traffic signals to impose some order on clashing intentions on the street, giving the “right of way” alternately and deftly.

Mr. Duterte may look like a loser by comparison in this mayor-gazing, but he can also be a gainer. He can use maverick mayors like Moreno to raise the standards of local governance by making all mayors become more responsive to the needs of their constituents. The day after his State of the Nation Address, the President ordered Interior Secretary Eduardo Año to suspend governors and mayors whowould not reclaim public roads used for private purposes. Año said implementing the President’s order would be similar to the formula started by Mayor Moreno of Manila, who cleared congested key Manila streets of illegal vendors. Isko quickly said that the City of Manila supported the President’s call; he knows he needs the support of Rodrigo Duterte to keep his strategy for Manila alive and working.

Many mayor-gazers expect that if miracles are possible in Manila, they are possible in their own cities as well. They forget, however, that it depends on who they voted into the mayor’s office during the last elections. Some newly elected mayors, like Benjie Magalong of Baguio City and Vico Sotto of Pasig City, give some hope. Sadly, this is not true of most others.

Mayor Isko has been meeting a series of ambassadors and Cabinet officials. Apparently, Isko-gazing has attained international dimensions. How much real change is possible? Isko Moreno is likely to have more traction than Mr. Duterte because he has up to nine years to change Manila, while the President only has six years to change the Philippines.