Francisco Moreno Domagoso, more commonly known as Isko Moreno and nicknamed "Yorme", is a Filipino politician, actor and host and entrepreneur who served as the 23rd Mayor of Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, from 2019 to 2022. Before entering politics, Moreno first gained notability as an actor and television personality.
Moreno was born and raised in the slums of Tondo, Manila, and spent his childhood in poverty. After a modest career in show business, he entered politics in 1998, standing for election as a city councilor of Manila; he was elected for three consecutive terms. He then pursued higher education, including some non-degree postgraduate education at Harvard Kennedy School and Oxford Saïd Business School. In 2007, he was elected as vice mayor of Manila for the first of three consecutive terms. In 2016, he was term-limited as vice mayor and unsuccessfully ran for senator in the 2016 senatorial elections, being placed 16th out of 50 candidates. He then served in the cabinet of President Rodrigo Duterte as social welfare undersecretary for a few months in 2018, before successfully standing as mayor of Manila, winning in a landslide victory against his former allies Joseph Estrada and Alfredo Lim in the 2019 local elections becoming the youngest elected mayor of Manila since the People Power Revolution.
Moreno is widely regarded as one of the top-performing local chief executives in the Philippines; he has described his leadership style as akin to that of his predecessor Alfredo Lim, citing their shared commitment to reducing crime and maintaining cleanliness of the capital. Moreno is also noted for his streetwise public image due to his use of colorful language coupled with Manila street slang. As a result, he is colloquially referred to as Yorme. His political career has been met with positive-to-mixed critical reception, gaining praise for his political will, efficiency, hands-on leadership, people skills, non-partisanism on designations, and results-oriented performance, but criticism for his sporadic spontaneous outspoken remarks, over-the-top populist tendencies, and lack of permanence to a national political party, although he remained a constant member since the inception of Asenso Manileño until 2024, a local party he co-founded.
In September 2021, Moreno announced his bid for the Philippine presidency in the 2022 presidential election, in which he finished fourth out of 10 candidates.
Having served in the government for 24 years, Moreno has received numerous recognitions for his public service. He is widely credited for "restoring Manila to its former glory within a short period of time", despite disinformation against him by political rivals. He is generally known for his firm implementation of city services, beautification of derelict historical sites, and leading the establishment of city infrastructure. He announced his first retirement from politics after his mayoral term ended on June 30, 2022 and ventured into business, content creation, and television hosting. In 2024, Moreno announced his return to politics, running once again for Mayor of Manila in the 2025 Philippine general election.
Early Life[]
Born Francisco Moreno Domagoso, he is the only child of Visayan parents Joaquin Copias Domagoso (1930–1995), a stevedore at Manila's North Harbor, from San Jose de Buenavista, Antique, and Rosario Moreno (1946–2020) from Allen, Northern Samar, a housewife, laundrywoman and garlic peeler. Isko's parents were not married when he was born and he has older half-siblings from his father's first family. Born and raised in the slums of Tondo, Manila where he was once nicknamed as "Scott", Moreno spent his childhood in poverty: at age 10, he made a living as a waste picker, as well as drove a passenger pedicab and rummaged through restaurant garbage bins for leftover food that his mother would recook for dinner. Moreno attended Rosauro Almario Elementary School and Tondo High School, both public schools in Tondo, Manila. From his savings, Moreno briefly enrolled in maritime engineering at the Philippine Maritime Institute in 1992, for one semester every year, but dropped out when he entered the entertainment business after he was discovered in 1993 by a talent scout who encouraged him to audition for That's Entertainment, a popular teen-variety show, as a way for him to relieve his family's poverty. Moreno subsequently got the part and adopted the screen name "Isko Moreno" using his mother's surname.
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