Young, Dynamic, And Broke?

Mayors Isko Moreno of Manila, Francis Zamora of San Juan and Joy Belmonte of Quezon City are the three young faces of Metro Manila politics.

They all say they have one thing in common: their youth can bring fresh ideas to the table.

But how do they ensure that their new and dynamic ideas will come to fruition when all three also face the same question: do their cities have the money for it?

The three mayors admit that in the first two weeks of their respective terms, their cities’ financial situation is proving to be a challenge.

Still they are confident that their ingenuity can make up for the lack of funds from their predecessors and bring hope to their constituents.

Both the mayors of Manila and San Juan have to deal with billions of pesos in debts left behind by their predecessors Joseph Estrada and his partner, Guia Gomez, respectively. For Manila, it’s P4.394 billion while for San Juan, its P1 billion.

Newly elected San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora speaks at his inauguration ceremony on June 30, 2019. Photo by Miguel de Guzman, The Philippine STAR

Zamora said Gomez initially turned over to him a P1.3-billion check but a review showed that almost all of it was already obligated to various projects.

In short, the city has almost no funds left for the rest of the year.

Zamora, the first non-member of the extended Estrada family to head San Juan in nearly 50 years, said he is out to prove that the city can do better for its people.

He noted that he and his fellow newcomers are facing “challenging but exciting” times.

“The new mayors are not traditional. The approach is out of the box that not everyone is used to. Personally, I’d like to believe that the new mayors are more progressive in time, we have new ideas that we want to implement. We are not too worried about norm, we are here to break the norms,” he said in an interview.

Further reading: Zamora to review San Juan City’s deals

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno leads the cleanup of the Vitas slaughterhouse in Tondo, Manila on July 19, 2019. Photo by Edd Gumban, The Philippine STAR

Moreno, for his part, was supposedly left with a P10-billion fund by Estrada, but this was debunked by the Commission on Audit, which said that  Manila had only P5,360,869,280 in cash available or P4.3 billion short of the money necessary to settle city’s debts.

Moreno said the local government would have to be frugal with its expenses to correct mistakes and plug “leaks” in its revenues.

He said many were surprised as his administration slowly uncovered the literally filthy situation of Manila but he himself knew what he was in for. He expressed hope that he could find solution to the city’s woes as soon as possible.

“I cannot guarantee what is going to happen tomorrow. The very least that we can guarantee is it will be different from what they have experienced in the past. With God’s mercy, we can use our energy and fresh ideas to address and give new approaches to a recurring problem,” he said.

While Moreno is receiving praise for his clearing operations, his critics say the vendors should have had relocation sites and not displaced for the sake of beautifying the city.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte talks to the local government employees during her first day in office on July 1, 2019. Photo by Michael Varcas, The Philippine STAR

While Belmonte laughed and considered herself to be in a better position than her two colleagues, she made it clear in her inaugural address that the fiscal situation of the city was not what she had hoped for.

Quezon City has only P1.6 billion in general funds for the rest of the year or P516 for each of the 3.1 million residents of Quezon City.

“I had an idea about how my city was being run and what to expect but it was worse than I thought. The challenge is to serve 3.1 million people with meager resources left to me,” she said in an interview.

Belmonte assured her constituents who are looking for positive change that the new breed of politicians can live up to their expectations.

“It is because we have a lot of energy, dynamism and a lot of ideas...we don’t want to disappoint the people who voted for us,” she said.

The three mayors were present during the 68th General Assembly of the League of Cities of the Philippines in Mandaluyong City on July 19, 2019, its first since the midterm elections.