An urgent appeal to Manila Mayor Isko Moreno

By Willie Jose
Toronto-Canada
May 24, 2019


Appoint an alumnus to PLM’s Presidency We would like to request our newly- elected Manila Mayor Isko Moreno to consider the possibility of appointing the president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) from the ranks of its alumni.

Mayor Moreno, being a PLM alumnus himself—a holder of a Master of Public Administration -- we surely know that he’ll help us in realizing our dream that one day we’ll have either an alumnus or alumna being named at the helm of the university.

By giving one of the alumni a chance to run the affairs of our beloved alma mater is both a great honor and a good way to show that Mayor Moreno is recognizing the impressive achievements that these graduates have reached so far in life.

Needless to say, these alumni have acquired the skills, competence, and integrity through their years of working in big private and public firms, here and abroad. Since its opening in 1967, the PLM has been turning out top caliber professionals whose integrity and competence is beyond reproach; in short, we don’t lack qualified alumni who can measure up to the challenges of the PLM presidency.

Having experienced life’s difficulties, an alumnus-president could carry out ideas on how to turn the PLM into a truly People’s University where the poor but talented graduates of Manila’s public schools are given all the help they need to turn around their lives for the better.

Being poor then, like you Mayor Moreno, most of our graduates have become successful in their chosen fields of endeavors: doctors, engineers, deans, accountants, professors, nurses, media men, bureaucrats, and businessmen. These alumni are now making waves, so to speak, in our community, thus they are truly the pride of the PLM.

The irony of it all, some of these alumni have become deans of other schools, managers of top private and public corporations, holders of masters and doctoral degrees. And for the simple reason that they don’t have the political backers at the City Hall, none of them have had the chance of being appointed as PLM president.

We now appeal to Mayor Moreno to give our alumni some breaks so that they could prove themselves to all that they can really be of great help to the university’s stakeholders: students, faculty members and the thousands of its alumni. --Willie Jose Toronto, PLM Class ‘67