An Invitation to Integrity

PASIG CITY ADMINISTRATOR ATTY. JERON MANZANERO DEMONSTRATES THAT A PUBLIC SERVANT’S STEADFASTNESS TO HIS PRINCIPLES IS ESSENTIAL TO GOOD G OVERNANCE.

Mere hours into the reporting of the partial and unofficial results of the 2025 elections, it quickly became clear that Mayor Vico Sotto and the entire Giting ng Pasig slate had secured a landslide victory. On X, a Pasigueño joked, “Okay na kami dito sa Pasig, kamusta kayo diyan sa ‘Pinas? (We’re okay here in Pasig, how are you there in the Philippines?)” The witty implication that Pasig is an entirely separate country from the Philippines made netizens laugh.

For that is what Pasig has become for many Filipinos: a city occupying another plane of existence where trapo (traditional politics) culture holds no sway, where true democracy lives. One can only imagine the effort that has been put into making Pasig the city that it is today. However, one wonders—is Pasig an unattainable standard, or a beacon of hope? Atty. Jeron Uy Manzanero, the city administrator of Pasig, would like to believe the latter. “We’ve been stuck in this cycle of bad leaders, bad politics, bad governance for the longest time,” he observes. “Now that I see that we have something good happening in Pasig, we just have to solidify that statement. That in nine years, even if it’s just a small city compared to the entire country, integrity is possible. It’s hard, but it is possible.”

TO BECOME A GOOD CITY ADMINISTRATOR, POLITICS SHOULD NOT BE A FACTOR IN YOUR JOB. YOU ADMINISTER OR DELIVER THE SERVICES OF THE CITY NO MATTER WHAT POLITICAL COLOR.

UNWAVERING PRINCIPLES

Asked about his motivation to enter public service, Manzanero admits, “I’d be lying if I said it came from deep within me. It’s really because of the mayor and what he stood for when he won. Every Pasigueño felt that victory back in 2019 that ended a political dynasty really sent a message to us. And at that time, I didn’t want to be a public servant. I just wanted to offer my help, my legal expertise to my friend, Vico.” What began as helping out a friend eventually became serving the people of Pasig as their city administrator, a position to which Manzanero was appointed in July 2019. For someone who never intended to become a public servant, Manzanero is particularly suited to the job. Tasked with coordinating closely with the local chief executive in the effective management, supervision and implementation of local development programs and projects, the city administrator makes countless decisions that affect thousands of people. Such a task is made simpler by Manzanero’s unswerving moral compass. He credits his habit of “Christ-driven decision making” to the guidance of the Lasallian brothers of La Salle  Greenhills, the Opus Dei priests of the University of Asia and the Pacific, and the Jesuits of Ateneo de Manila University throughout his high school, university, and law school days. This habit was further bolstered by his knowledge and practice of law, because as he puts it, “what is written in the law is what I administer and implement. It’s just as simple as that.” Most of all, his decisions are given clarity by his number one priority: his family. He devotes all his free time to his wife, actress Sheena Halili, and their two children, Martina and Jio. Manzanero explains, “I believe that once you’re grounded in family, all your decisions are clearer, are more in line with your moral compass, and of course with the greater good.”

A man whose values inform all his decisions is a man of integrity, and that is what Manzanero seeks to instill in his children as a father and to embody in his work as a public servant. Integrity alone, however, is “just one part of it,” he explains. “You still need to be competent at your job.” His legal career equips him with both competence and confidence in fulfilling his duties as city administrator. Before taking and passing the Philippine Bar exams, he was a legal consultant at the Office of Councilor Anton G. Capistrano of the Fourth District of Manila. He later worked as a litigation lawyer at Chavez Miranda Aseoche Law Offices and City of Dreams Manila, and then at Meralco as an energy lawyer. Manzanero says that he enjoyed his time there, as it was close to home. For him, Pasig—the city in which he lived, studied, and worked—is home. When the opportunity arose for him to serve its people, he gladly took it.

A PUBLIC SERVANT’S MINDSET

Manzanero describes the services that the city provides Pasigueños as ranging from “before the cradle to beyond the grave.” These services cover all aspects of a Pasigueño’s life, and it is his role as the city administrator to see to it that all these services are working, and that all Pasigueños can avail of them.

Because he works closely with the mayor to implement various policies and projects, one would understand why the title of “little mayor” could be appropriate for a person of Manzanero’s position. However, he strongly opposes this title. He thinks that to be called such is to imply a city administrator’s involvement in politics. He firmly emphasizes, “To become a good city administrator, politics should not be a factor in your job. You administer or deliver the services of the city no matter what political color. Dapat walang bahid ng pulitika. Kahit sino, lahat dapat mabibigyan ng serbisyo nang pantay pantay. (This should not be tainted by politicking. No matter who they are, everyone should be given these services equally.)” He advises the same to whoever may hold the position of city administrator in the future: “Don’t put it in your head that you’re all-powerful or that you can do whatever you want. Your job must come first. Your tasks of delivering services and bringing them to everyone equally comes first.”

He also reminds Pasigueños, “Hindi kayo dapat may utang na loob sa pulitikong gumawa ng programa. (You shouldn’t be indebted to the politicians who came up with the programs.)” Public servants ought to be only temporarily in office, and programs should not be reelection strategies. Manzanero carries out his duties with the full knowledge that there is no need for them to be attributed to him specifically. He is excited by the thought that “this policy that we met on and we thought of will really have a life of its own, beyond the people who worked on it… After a hundred years when we’re just names, just memories, Pasig City will still be there. And hopefully, the programs too, because that means that they’re good programs.” Asked if he intends to run for office someday, he firmly responds, “Not at all.” For him, one does not need to be an elected official to do good and to serve the people.

BELIEVING IN PEOPLE

One of Manzanero’s first tasks as city administrator was transforming anti-corruption policies into concrete plans of action. “It’s hard to do that administratively, because corruption was part of the culture. And in the entire Philippines, it’s still a cultural problem,” he notes. Applying such policies inevitably led to disagreeing with a lot of people. If there were government employees who did not follow such policies, he and his team would coordinate with the Philippine National Police to apprehend them.

Besides dealing with outright opposition, Manzanero had to introduce these policies to public servants and department heads who were more experienced than him. In 2019, he was new to public service and to the city. Apart from trying to make things work, he had to study how they worked in the f irst place. At that time, Pasig was also one of the wealthiest and most developed cities in the country. This made an already complicated task even more challenging. Who was he to introduce new ways of doing things when the methods in place be seemed to have been working?

Some would think that a quicker solution would have been to replace all the department heads with those who shared the vision of the new mayor. After all, uprooting deep-seated behaviors and systems requires radical measures. Such was the advice given to the mayor and to Manzanero by other politicians and administrators in 2019. However, this was not the path they took because, as Manzanero explains, “We believe in people. People want a better government. If we showed from the leadership emanating from Mayor Vico that it is possible, I was sure they would adopt it.” In fact, at the time of LEAGUE’s conversation with Manzanero in April 2025, he was still working with the same department heads that he worked with from his first day on the job—the ones who have been working in the city government even before Sotto’s first term.

The extent of the change the city has undergone in the past six years is evident in Manzanero’s words: “Before, when we heard about corruption, we weren’t surprised. We acted on it and investigated it. But now, when we hear about such things, we’re surprised. It’s not the culture that we have now. We fought against it, we fixed it.”

The typical Filipino reader would be surprised at these words. It is a sad reality that many Filipinos have grown numb to corruption, and assume that our country is irreversibly mired in it. But Manzanero disagrees, and holds a refreshingly hopeful perspective: “Ang Pilipino, ayaw ng korupsiyon, gusto na maayos ang gobyerno. Kaya ngayong nakikita nila na may maayos na pamamahala sa lungsod, nagsisilbi itong patunay sa kanila na kaya pala, posible pala. (Filipinos don’t want corruption, they want good governance. Now that they've seen that the city government is doing things the right way, they have come to realize that it can actually be done, that it is possible.)”

Manzanero believes that corruption isn’t something that Filipinos seek, it’s something they put up with. If you showed them a way out, they would take it. The way out, however, is far from easy. There is no shortcut to good governance. One of Manzanero’s difficult tasks, for instance, is overseeing the procurement process for city projects. Although the law details the proper procedure, such is not what usually happens in practice. Open bidding, therefore, was initially something new to many contractors. Even if there may be the risk of projects getting delayed or taking longer than they would have if the city directly approached a specific contractor, “true bidding happens in Pasig City,” Manzanero proudly affirms. “The contractors know that.”

OPENING PATHS TO ACTIVE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Facilitating city government employees’ involvement in establishing good governance is important, but all Pasigueños are invited to be part of this process as well. Manzanero pinpoints the Freedom of Information Ordinance passed by then-Councilor Vico Sotto as an important step in this direction. This was one of the first policies enacted when he was elected as mayor: the establishment of the Freedom of Information Office, also called “Ugnayan sa Pasig” (Linkages in Pasig). This office is easily accessible to Pasigueños, as its contact information is available on the city website, it has its own Facebook page, and it is located on the ground floor of the Pasig City Hall. At this office, any Pasigueño can request documents about and budgets of city projects, and they can also submit complaints. Manzanero describes it as “a mechanism that institutionalizes the participation of the people.” This feedback mechanism allows Pasigueños to raise concerns that may escape the attention of city government employees, like lack of access roads to parking areas and busted streetlights.

Ugnayan sa Pasig was initially under the Office of the City Administrator so that Manzanero could course concerns and feedback to the appropriate offices or departments. As the city administrator, Manzanero takes care of issuing permits, like those for special events, road closure, or bazaars. In order to abide by anti-red tape rules and follow up on late documents and permits, Ugnayan sa Pasig was later separated from the Office of the City Administrator, so that it could function as a mechanism of accountability for city government employees as well.

Another principle safeguarded by Ugnayan sa Pasig is transparency. One of the ongoing projects of the Pasig City government is the construction of a new City Hall Complex which has a budget of Php9.2 billion. A project with a budget that big usually raises some eyebrows. Perhaps that would be true anywhere else in the Philippines, but in Pasig, the city government invites Pasigueños to ask questions. Thus far, the Pasig City government has been very open with this plan, with Sotto even explaining it in a 16-minute video on the YouTube channel of Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP.ph). Manzanero, encouraging Pasigueños to go to Ugnayan sa Pasig to learn more about it, says “Bukas ang libro namin. (Our books are open). We can supply whatever you want to know.”

In a post uploaded on Instagram in October 2024, shortly after Sotto filed his certificate of candidacy for reelection, Manzanero cites “a happier, prouder, and more engaged community” as one of the markers of Pasig’s progress. The City Hall Complex project serves as an opportunity to reframe people’s relationship with the local government and rebuild citizen’s trust in institutions. Manzanero happily observes, “I’ve seen that it has become part of the culture of Pasigueños that you have an office to go to if you have a problem, or if there’s something you want to know.”

THE ROAD TO GOOD GOVERNANCE

“Even when no one’s looking, how can you do the right thing?” This is a question Manzanero wants to help his children to answer, because he hopes to teach them to live with integrity. Through his many years of service to Pasig as city administrator, integrity is also something that he hopes Pasigueños will come to espouse and fight for. Manzanero believes that good governance and eradicating corruption can only be achieved and sustained if all Pasigueños work together. He reminds them to hold on to these ideals, even if it means taking the slower, more arduous path toward progress. “Maniwala tayo sa isang proseso na magbibigay-bunga sa magandang kinabukasan para sa atin. At wala nang iba na kailangan pa nating gawin kundi ang pamamahala nang tapat, ang good governance. Maniwala po tayo na posible ‘yon. Hindi po ‘yon kathang-isip lamang. Kailangan po nating isabuhay ang prinsipyo na ‘yon sa araw-araw na buhay. (Let’s believe in the process that will result in a better future for us. There’s nothing more that we need to do besides governing honestly, practicing good governance. Let us believe that this is possible. It isn’t just a figment of our imagination. We need to live out that principle in our everyday lives.)”

CORRUPTION ISN’T SOMETHING THAT FILIPINOS SEEK, IT’S SOMETHING THEY PUT UP WITH. IF YOU SHOWED THEM A WAY OUT, THEY WOULD TAKE IT.