Isko Moreno's Achilles' heel is his populist tendencies

MANILA Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso makes a dramatic entrance into the 2022 presidential race, bearing the narrative of one who started out dirt poor but is now a political name to reckon with. What he offers is a fresh alternative to a kind of politics that looks to be an installment of the never-ending conflict which started between Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Benigno Aquino Jr.

He marches into the political landscape with his biting remarks, a pragmatic take on issues, and his novel and eye-catching hashtags. He doesn't mince words in terms of his willingness to be frank and brutal. He unabashedly refers to his critics as the "yellowtards," a word which even President Rodrigo Duterte rarely uses, if in fact he ever uses it. In this manner, he appears to some as Duterte 2.0, but with a handsome face and minus the cursing, misogyny and death threats.