(BusinessWorld) PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night mocked a mayor who’s been doing well in election polls for the alleged disorder at his city’s vaccination sites, saying he was unfit to become President.
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter.

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte on Monday night mocked a mayor who’s been doing well in election polls for the alleged disorder at his city’s vaccination sites, saying he was unfit to become President.

The tough-talking leader, alluding to Manila Mayor Francisco Moreno Domagoso — also known by his screen name Isko Moreno — ridiculed him for his past as a sexy actor. He should not become Philippine President, he added.

“That’s what you want — someone trained like call boy?” Mr. Duterte said in a televised speech in Filipino. “That’s the training for a President, stripping and having his picture taken.”

Before his stint in showbusiness, Mr. Domagoso was a scavenger and pedicab driver in one of the most populated districts in the Philippine capital.

The mayor had done well in polls on voters’ preferences for presidential and vice-presidential candidates, placing second to presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio and Mr. Duterte, who earlier said he might run for vice-president next year.

The President said he would strip the city of its power to distribute government cash aid for the alleged chaos.

Sought for comment, Mr. Domagoso instead shared a certificate issued by the Interior and Local Government department two months ago praising his performance in distributing cash aid.

Potential candidates next year should brace for more political attacks, with less than two months left before they file their certificates of candidacy, political analysts said.

“The stronger challengers to the administration will likely be the object of smear campaigns,” said Dennis C. Coronacion, who heads the University of Santo Tomas Political Science Department.

“Pro-Duterte bloggers, vloggers and the entire disinformation machinery will go against whoever is doing good in the surveys,” he said in a Viber message.

Mr. Domagoso’s narrative could be easily discredited “because it’s personality- rather than platform-oriented,” said Cleve V. Arguelles, a political science lecturer at De La Salle University.

“It’s what happened to Jejomar Binay and Manny Villar’s presidential campaigns before,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “They only have to discredit their characters for their entire campaigns to lose credibility.”

The Interior and Local Government department last week ordered the Manila mayor, who was elected in 2019, to explain his city’s alleged failure to fully implement Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs.

The order may be an effort to harass Mr. Domagoso, who has a big chance of challenging a Duterte victory in the 2022 polls, said Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

Mr. Domagoso’s rise from poverty is a powerful narrative that could challenge the Dutertes and the country’s elite-dominated politics, she said in an e-mail.

The mayor, who beat ex-President Joseph Estrada in the 2019 elections, can develop a more powerful narrative “because he really has grassroots origins, unlike the President who comes from a political family,” Ms. Atienza said.