In Manila local polls, it's 2 officers and a 'flower man'

The battle for political supremacy in the Philippines’ premier city and seat of national power is mainly revolving around three characters: two gruff no-nonsense ex-cops and a guy who loves flowery shirts.

The three are contenders for the mayoral post of the City of Manila at the very heart of the National Capital Region. The Manila mayoralty is a plum post for a plum city that is the country’s second most populous at 1.5 million residents. It is home to Malacañang, Intramuros, magnificent churches and other centuries-old historic sites, as well as an expansive sprawl of residential, commercial and industrial districts that revolve around the Port Area and meander along the Pasig river that runs through it. The incumbent Manila mayor, Alfredo Lim, is a retired police general who also served as director of the National Bureau of Investigation. On May 10, he will attempt to defend his post from former vice mayor Jose "Lito" Atienza — himself a three-term Manila mayor — and another retired officer, former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Avelino "Sonny" Razon Jr. Each one of the three has left his own indelible mark in the public mind. Atienza is known to don floral shirts in every public engagement that he attends. On the other hand, Lim and Razon, having both come from the PNP, are known crime-busters, with Lim projecting a tough stance against drug users. Atienza, who who has the support of former President Joseph Estrada, said however that going head to head with two men in uniform might ultimately work to his advantage. "I have my own share of solid loyalists. My two rivals also have supporters who trust the local police in Manila. But since they are both running, that support would be divided into two," Atienza told GMANews.TV. But of the three mayoral candidates, Liberal Party bet Lim is considered the more experienced in politics. Apart from having been a three-term mayor of Manila, he also served as senator in 2001 and ran as president in 1998. Lim was already known as a no-nonsense crime-fighter during his long police career. Thus, shifting into a political career, he decided to further build upon this reputation when he first became mayor in 1992, launching high-profile and iron-fisted anti-crime campaigns that earned him the tag "Dirty Harry of the Philippines." One of Lim's most lauded but also highly-criticized campaigns as mayor was his strong anti-illegal drugs drive, which employed controversial methods such as marking the doors of known drug users and dealers with spray paint to ostracize them. But Lim himself got a taste of his own medicine, as his son Manuel "Manny" Lim would later get arrested during a drug buy-bust operation in Binondo, Manila in March 2008. A case filed against Manny has yet to be reopened after a Manila judge provisionally dropped the case. Atienza also served as Manila mayor, but only because Lim vacated the post. After two terms as Manila mayor, Lim launched a bid to become Philippine president in 1998, going up and losing against Estrada. Atienza was Lim’s vice mayor. With Lim out of the picture, Atienza acquired the mayoralty and went on to rule over Manila for three uninterrupted terms from 1998 to 2007. After a stint as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Environment secretary, he now wants to work again at the City Hall. Of all his accomplishments as mayor, Atienza said his biggest contribution to the city was in improving and modernizing its urban development strategies, and eventually setting a model for other Philippine cities to follow. "When I took over as mayor, Manila was an old, decaying shipyard. So I had to renew it. Introduce development and make the economy more productive," Atienza told GMANews.TV. The former Manila mayor boasted of having jacked up the city's income from P1.7 billion when he first took over the post from Lim in 1998 to about P8 billion eight years later in 2006. Lim supporter But Ben, a man in his sixties who still works for a living by driving a pedicab through the narrow streets inside the fortified walls of Intramuros, is unimpressed with the former Environment secretary's claimed achievements. A cursory inspection of Ben’s pedicab immediately reveals where his political loyalty lies. A huge campaign tarpaulin of Lim was tailored to become the pedicab's covering. Stickers of the former NBI director are plastered in its interiors. As if his pedicab’s walls were not enough, Ben decided to wear his allegiance to Lim using his very clothing — a white campaign shirt of Lim. "Lim na ako ever since. At ayoko kay Atienza. Sobrang-sobra... ang pagiging corrupt niya (I've been a Lim supporter ever since and I don’t like Atienza. It’s too much… his being corrupt)," said Ben. After reaching the mandatory three-term limit for mayors in 2007, Atienza fielded his son—former Manila Sports Council (Masco) Chairman Arnold “Ali" Atienza—to go up against then re-electionist Lim in that year's mayoral derby. But Lim beat Ali, ending the nine-year rule of the Atienzas. Taking down Atienza legacy When Lim regained the post in 2007 almost a decade after he left it, the former Manila mayor returned with a bang, making sure his comeback would not go unnoticed. His game plan, it seemed, was to erase every trace of his rival's legacy in Manila. Just over a month after assuming office, Lim immediately ordered that the then lively night hotspot Baywalk be cleared of all business establishments, including bars and restaurants. Lim claimed that he cleared the Baywalk after receiving complaints from nearby residents about the noise generated by the businesses along the belt. As expected, the Baywalk "demolition" did not sit well with the tenants and other individuals whose incomes had depended on the busy night-life near the Manila Bay. Three years after the incident, Amelita Estrada—who used to work as a parking aide at the Baywalk—is still in no mood to extend forgiveness to Lim. Amelita has lived in Manila all her life. "Nagkandahirap-hirap kami dahil sa Lim na yan. Matatalo na siya. Hindi ko nga siya tinatawag na mayor. 'Lim' lang, 'Lim,'" said Amelita, who to this day remains jobless. (We became really destitute because of that man Lim. He will lose. I don’t even call him mayor. Just ‘Lim.’) Despite criticisms against him, the 80-year-old Lim remained steadfast in stamping out all sorts of peace and order problems in Manila, if data from the MPD Investigation and Detection and Detective Management Division were used as basis. Police records shows that the crime rate declined from year to year since Lim returned to office in 2007. From 1,643 in 2007, crime incidents like murder, homicide, physical injury, robbery and theft went down to 1,403 by the end of 2009. However, Senior Superintendent Edgardo Ladao, District Director for Operations of the Manila Police District, told GMANews.TV that increasing or decreasing crime incidents in a locality should not always be attributed to that locality’s mayor. "We are still directly answerable to the PNP chief. It would be biased to gauge [a mayor's performance] through crime statistics," Ladao said. Apart from taking potshots at the Baywalk nightlife, the oppositionist Lim also abolished a pro-administration Atienza policy of blocking demonstrations on the Don Chino Roces (former Mendiola) Bridge. Protests actions have since been allowed on the historic bridge, although only during holidays and weekends, and provided that organizers secure the proper permit from Lim's office. The fist-fight between Atienza and Lim does not seem to be fizzling out soon. Recently, the Atienzas and Lim figured in a heated debate at a public forum in Manila when both camps threw allegations of drug use against each other. Last week, Atienza also presented to media a City Hall employee who claimed that Lim was hatching a plan to rig the local elections—an accusation denied by the incumbent mayor. While Atienza and Lim continue exchanging tirades, a third mayoral candidate in the person of Razon quietly makes his rounds in Manila, wooing Manileños to vote for him, and promising change. Given that it's his first time to dabble in politics, his campaign posters plastered all over the city bear the slogan, "Team Pagbabago. Manileño ang Razon (Team Change. The Razons are Manileños)." Razon is running under the We Are The Reason Movement. The 57-year-old Razon belongs to the Philippine Military "Marangal" Class of 1974 and served as PNP chief from 2007 to 2008. After heading the PNP, he became the presidential adviser on the peace process in January 2009 but resigned later that year to focus on his mayoral bid. Razon and Atienza both appeared before the Senate during the investigation of the controversial $329-million national broadband network deal, belying claims that Senate witness and former Philippine Forest Corp. president Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada Jr. was abducted upon his arrival from Hong Kong in 2008. Notwithstanding allegations of attempts at poll fraud before the elections, Manileños still expect to finally find out, in a few days, who among the three—the two ex-cops and the "flower man"—will emerge victorious.—JV, GMANews.TV