With former Manila mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso said to be planning for a comeback as Manila’s chief executive, incumbent mayor Dra. Maria Sheilah ‘Honey’ Lacuna-Pangan has expressed hurt from the former mayor’s betrayal to run again despite earlier assurances that he would retire from politics after his unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2022.

At the sidelines of filing her certificate of candidacy (CoC) on Thursday, October 3, seeking a second term as mayor, the incumbent mayor disclosed that Domagoso had previously commtted to her and their partymates in Asenso Manileño that he would no longer seek for an elective position and all the more as mayor of Manila.

“Before he left Manila . . . this was very clear to us and he always mentioned it. So when he suddenly said that he intends to run again, we wondered what was the real reason why he would come back,” Lacuna pointed out even as she recalled that Domagoso first mentioned his intention to run again as Manila mayor sometime in August 2024.

“We talked once, but we never talked again,” she said. “He informed me that he is planning to run. I did not have any reaction to this at that time.”

But with their impending clash in next year’s polls now at hand, the daughter of Manila’s late Vice Mayor Danilo ‘Danny’ Lacuna Sr. enthused that she wished her ‘brother’—in reference to Domagoso having been treated by her father as an adopted son—good fortune in all his endeavors.

“I wish him well, good luck to him if he does decide to run again,” she concluded.