Yul Servo vs Raymond Bagatsing: 2 actors to slug it out in Manila vice mayor race in 2022
MANILA VICE MAYORALTY candidates Raymond Bagatsing and Rep. Yul Servo (Marvin Nieto) are both actors
By Jeanne Michael Penaranda and Jo Erlinda Maufit
MANILA – Manila is in for another battle of actors in the 2022 elections.
In the 2019 elections, it was a fight between actor and then incumbent mayor Joseph Estrada, whose real name is Joseph Marcelo Ejercito, and actor and now Manila Mayor Francisco Moreno, who is better known for his actor’s name Isko Moreno.
That election saw the young Isko Moreno trouncing Estrada, a former president, vice president, senator and mayor, by landslide (over 100,000 votes) which was never before seen in the history of Manila elections.
In the same election, actor and former Manila Councilor Yul Servo, 44, whose real name is John Marvin Nieto, won as congressman of Manila’s third district. Before that he served for three terms as councilor.
Now, Congressman Servo will be facing another actor in the 2022 elections. His rival is Ramon “Raymond” Bagatsing, 54, whose grandfather, Ramon D. Bagatsing Sr., served as Congressman and then as a long-time and well-loved mayor of Manila.
The Servo-Bagatsing contest, however, is for the number two post of the city.
Observers said Congressman Servo has a big advantage in the vice mayoralty race because he is a candidate of Mayor Domagoso and their party Asenso Manileno in tandem with now Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan, a professional doctor who is making history by becoming the first lady mayor and lady doctor mayor of the country’s capital.
Vice Mayor Lacuna, daughter of the late Manila Vice Mayor Danilo Lacuna, the mentor of Mayor Domagoso since he started as councilor.
Bagatsing is running as an independent candidate without any party backup. Later it was reported that he is running under the PDP-Laban-Kabaka party coalition of former Congressman Amado Bagatsing.
Bagatsing was a long-time resident of Los Angeles before going back to Manila to pursue his acting career. While in Los Angeles, he married a former professor of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), Rosalia Acu, many times his senior; and later Cora Pastrana, then 60 years old (he was 41), who worked as a columnist for three Filipino-American newspapers—Filipino Express, Filipino Press San Diego and New Jersey, and Weekend Balita—and asa part-time broadcast correspondent for ABS-CBN Balitang America.
Reports from Los Angeles showed that then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former Executive Secretary Oscar Orbos were principal sponsors at the Pastrana-Bagatsing wedding.
Raymond’s first wedding was in 2001. His first wife was Lara Fabregas, the unica hija of musical scorer-actor Jaime Fabregas by poet Bing Caballero.
Meanwhile, Mayor Domagoso, a presidential candidate, said he wants the Philippines to ride the Korean wave as he targets to infuse capital in the local entertainment industry once he wins the presidential election next year.
“If we can go on the same path where the Korean government spent so much money to develop their movie industry, I think we can do the same. It took them 20 years to introduce Korean culture through visual arts to the world, we can do it as well,” the mayor said.
The presidential hopeful said K-pop groups Black Pink and BTS, as well as Korean television shows and movies, continue to gain popularity on the international stage, helping spur South Korea’s economy.
Amid the industry boom, Moreno said South Korea’s entertainment and media sector has been chipping in $10 billion to the country’s economy every year.
“Imagine how Korean culture is now ingrained globally. All because of their entertainment industry that is also contributing substantially to their economy,” he said.
“Imagine how it can help our economy grow. If BTS can do it, hopefully someday, somehow, we can do it also,” Moreno added.
