I have been getting a lot of calls and text messages asking if indeed, Isko Moreno will challenge Mayor Honey Lacuna in the 2025 elections. This is why I am writing this piece.
I know them both and I would like to think that I am friends with both of them and vice versa.
I have known Isko since he was a first-term councilor, while I have gotten to know Mayor Honey more when she was Vice Mayor to Isko, during the pandemic. Her dad, the late Danny Lacuna, was a good friend whom I covered when he was the Vice Mayor and Presiding Officer of the Manila City Council decades ago.
Back then, Isko belonged to the camp opposed to that of Vice Mayor Danny who, along with then Councilor Bernie Ang, founded the local party Asenso Manileño, now the ruling party in Manila.
While covering one of the council sessions, I saw how Isko took every chance to pick a verbal exchange on the floor with then fellow Councilor, now City Administrator Ang. Then and now, no one dares to argue with Ang and get away with it. Ang happens to be the author of the Manila Tax Code and he has the brains of 10 lawyers combined.
Since Isko is a friend, I talked to his chief of staff then, Joel Par, who was my classmate in law school. I told him to advise Isko against engaging Coun. Bernie because he won’t ever win and he was being jeered in the gallery from where I stood. He couldn’t, so I did.
I told Isko to instead befriend then Coun. Ang and learn from him, like many neophyte councilors did. I then tagged him along and brought him to Coun. Ang and patched them up.
From then on, Ang would tell me that Isko was always in his office asking to be mentored.
Eventually, I told Isko to join the Asenso Manileno where he would have a better future with VM Danny and Ang. Good for him, he did.
VM Danny and Ang, who happened to be best buddies, had Isko take a course on local governance to compensate for his lack of a college degree and did everything to catapult him to the position of Vice Mayor.
And although VM Danny fell ill, the entire local party under the tutelage of co-founder Ang and the entire Lacuna clan, continued supporting him until he became the city mayor.
While Isko was mayor, then Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna was on hand to give her all to help his administration succeed amid the pandemic.
As a doctor, then VM Honey’s supervision of the health cluster made Manila soar in terms of handling the health emergency crisis. Too, in her concurrent capacity as the Presiding Officer of the 38-member Manila City Council, she made sure that all important measures that would address the needs of the residents at that time were passed in no time.
She would convene the council and hold sessions even at night, on weekends or holidays, to get things done soonest.
Among these is the passage of the social amelioration package which provides, until now, monthly cash aid for senior citizens, solo parents, university students, persons with disability, and just recently, even minors with disability.
I saw the kind of deep, sibling-like relationship that Mayor Honey and Isko had and I was happy for them, especially for Isko who is an only child and whose only family member around was his mother.
His lack of a father figure was more than compensated by the love showered upon him by VM Danny and Ang who were constantly there for him in times of need and crisis.
VM Danny’s wife, Tita Inday, was also a mother to him especially when he lost his mom during his tenure. Needless to say, the partymates and especially the Lacunas and party patriarch Ang, treated him as family.
Countless times, Isko had stated that he was retired. This was when asked hypothetically during the presidential campaign if he would go back to politics in case he lost and again when he was defeated by now President Bongbong, Marcos, Jr. during the 2022 presidential elections.
He has also told me the same thing a number of times before, during, and after the said polls.
Isko has also repeatedly told his very own partymates this, adding that they are ‘family’ and should never, ever engage in any political fight amongst themselves.
Honey consistently addresses Isko as ‘boss’ while he continues calling her ‘Ate,’ being older than him.
From an objective point of view, I do not see any justifiable reason why Isko would turn against Honey, her family and their partymates. Mayor Honey also continued and even enhanced all the projects he had left behind, retained the officials he had appointed and even continued inviting him to certain occasions in the city.
In our culture, debt of gratitude or ‘utang na loob’ is a trait that is ingrained in our character. It entails reciprocity and keeping to heart the good deeds that we receive, especially during times when we need help the most.
I would like to believe that Isko still holds dear the values of family and of the people who were there when he was still a nobody.
One cannot claim to have love of God, country, city or the people, if you can afford to turn your back on family.
Next to God, family comes first. Family does not need to be people of the same blood. They are the people who are there for you when you need a hug, a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on. They are the ones who are there, especially during the times when you are down. They are the ones who fought with you in your life’s major battles.
So, for those asking, I don’t think Isko will betray his family or the people who have helped him rise from poverty and become who he is today.
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