Prior to the arrival of
Miguel López de Legazpi, Manila was a chiefdom headed by
datus. From the defeat of
Rajah Sulayman's forces in 1575 to the passage of the
Maura Law in 1895, the chief executive of the city was appointed by the Spanish government to a person of Spanish descent. The highest position a Filipino was able to hold was the
cabeza de barangay. With the passage of the Maura Law, the office of
capitan municipal was established, with the people electing their own town heads, although the Spanish retained considerable influence and could veto decisions. With the eruption of the
Philippine Revolution and the
Philippine–American War, the position reverted to an appointive head. With the advent of
World War II, President
Manuel L. Quezon appointed
Jorge B. Vargas as mayor of the
City of Greater Manila (forerunner of
Metro Manila) in 1941. With the
liberation of Manila in 1945 by combined Filipino and American soldiers under the United States Army and the Philippine Commonwealth Army including local recognized guerrillas against the Japanese Imperial forces, the earlier setup was used once again. With the amendment of the city's charter in 1951, the position became an elective post. The first mayoral election was in 1951, and
Manila's congressman from the 2nd district Arsenio Lacson defeated incumbent Manuel de la Fuente. A few years after the declaration of martial law by President
Ferdinand Marcos,
Manila and nearby cities like
Quezon City,
Caloocan, and
Pasay, were overshadowed by the office of the governor of the newly created
Metro Manila, whom Marcos appointed his wife,
Imelda Marcos, to the position. With
Arsenio Lacson becoming the first elected mayor, the city of Manila underwent
The Golden Age, was revitalized, and once again became the "Pearl of the Orient", a moniker it earned before the outbreak of the war. After Mayor Lacson's term in the 1950s, the city was led by Mayor
Antonio Villegas during most of the 1960s, and Mayor
Ramon Bagatsing for nearly the entire decade of the 1970s until the 1986
People Power Revolution that overthrew President Marcos. Mayors Lacson, Villegas, and Bagatsing are often collectively considered as "the Big Three of Manila" for their rather long tenures as the city hall's chief executive (continuously for over three decades, from 1952 to 1986), but more importantly, for their indelible contribution to the development and progress of the city and their lasting legacy in uplifting the quality of life and welfare of the people of Manila. With the ouster of Marcos following the People Power Revolution, President
Corazon Aquino vacated all local executive officials and appointed officers in charge (OICs) in their place; she appointed party-mate
Mel Lopez as OIC of Manila.
Local elections were held in 1988, and Lopez was elected as mayor. The
Local Government Code was enacted in 1991, and standardized the powers of Manila's mayor making it at par with other cities in the country. The office of the mayor is often used as a springboard for further political ambitions. In 1961, Lacson bolted the
Nacionalista Party to become the campaign manager of the
Liberal Party's
Diosdado Macapagal's presidential campaign. After Macapagal's victory, Lacson returned with the Nacionalistas and became a critic of the Macapagal administration. Lacson would've been likely the Nacionalista's candidate for the presidency in 1965, had not death intervened in 1962. In
1998, the sitting mayor of Manila,
Alfredo Lim, did run as the Liberal Party's candidate for the presidency, but was beaten by
Joseph Estrada, finishing fifth in a field of ten candidates, garnering 9% of the vote; Estrada later nominated him as
Secretary of the Interior and Local Government. Lim later ran and won a Senate seat
in 2004, but forfeited it three years when he ran and won as mayor again. Estrada, who was previously the mayor of bordering
San Juan, defeated Lim as mayor of Manila
in 2013. Their vice mayor,
Isko Moreno, ran for the Senate and lost
in 2016. Moreno defeated both Estrada and Lim
in 2019. In 2021, Moreno announced his candidacy for president in the
2022 presidential election. Days later, Moreno's opponent
Manny Pacquiao chose former mayor
Lito Atienza as his running mate for vice president. Moreno, Atienza, and Pacquiao both lost their bids in 2022, respectively. The longest-serving mayor of Manila is
Ramon Bagatsing, who continuously served as the city's chief executive from 1971 until 1986. His tenure could have been longer if his term was not disrupted by the forced resignation of all local government unit heads and the appointment of officers in charge in their place after the 1986 revolution, to which Bagatsing fully supported and complied with, voluntarily handing over his position to OIC Mel Lopez. ==List==