The scheduled Caloocan motorcade of presidential hopeful Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on Tuesday did not push through after the city government revoked their permit.
In a letter sent to Moreno’s party Aksyon Demokratiko, Caloocan City Administrator Oliver Hernandez said the presidential bet’s application for a motorcade permit was denied "because the identified routes in your letter involve major thoroughfares in Metro Manila which are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)."
However, Moreno’s campaign manager Lito Banayo said their permit was already approved by the local government unit.
"Tumawag kami sa MMDA. Eh ‘yun pala nasabihan na nila ‘yung MMDA din, ng Caloocan, ng city of administrator na binawi na raw nila ‘yung permit dahil nagkaka-traffic daw. Eh sana naman ‘di na nila binigyan muna," Banayo stated.
[We called the MMDA and we found out that the Caloocan government, its city administrator, had already told the MMDA that they revoked the permit because of traffic issues. Then they shouldn’t have given us the permit in the first place.]
With this, Moreno's camp cannot help but think that the move was politically motivated.
"So siyempre hindi mo maaalis sa amin mag-isip na local politics ang maaaring dahilan dahil ang kandidato ng Aksyon ay si Congressman Egay Erice para mayor ng Caloocan, samantalang ang incumbent mayor, kaibigan kong si Oca Malapitan, ang anak niya tumatakbo," Banayo said.
[So of course we can’t help but think that local politics is involved because the mayoral candidate of Aksyon Demokratiko is Congressman Egay Erice while the son of incumbent Mayor Octa Malapitan is also running.]
The request of Moreno’s camp was for Tuesday, March 1, which was filed last Thursday.
In a statement, Mayor Oscar Malapitan denied that politics was involved in the revocation of the permit for Moreno's campaign motorcade.
