Sawt Falasteen - Prayers, pride in Philippine papal contender's hometown

"I'm afraid of the politics in Rome," Sister Marilena Narvaez told AFP from their shared home neighbourhood, south of Manila.

"I told him that I don't pray that he becomes a pope," said the 83-year-old, who once tutored a young Tagle for a spelling bee.

That view is an outlier in Imus, a densely populated city where both grew up and the 67-year-old Tagle began his career.

When AFP visited recently, a small museum dedicated to its favourite son was closed and family members declined interviews -- perhaps in deference to calls by local bishops to avoid "campaigning" for his papal candidacy.

Still, British bookmaker William Hill has Tagle a 3-1 chance to win, second behind 9-4 Italian favourite Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

It is Tagle's work with the poor that largely defined his nearly two decades in his hometown diocese -- first as a priest, then later bishop -- and why many former parishioners openly root for his papacy.

"He is not a saint, but his tears fall easily for the poor," said Maria Minda Ortiz, who sells candles in the courtyard of the Imus cathedral.

The 64-year-old credits Tagle with helping her violent tricycle driver husband reform and embrace Christianity before his death.

"We're praying for it to happen," said Corazon Reno, 72, another courtyard vendor.

Anna Fernandez, a candle vendor whose left leg is atrophied by polio, has also been watching the news from Rome with building anticipation.

She was just eight years old when Tagle, then a priest, washed and kissed her feet during Holy Week in 1995, a re-enactment of Christ's washing of his disciples' feet before the Last Supper.

"I offered my right leg since it was the normal one. But he told me, 'Anna, give me the left one, the one with a defect'," she recalled.

- Comfortable beginnings -

A sprawling three-storey family home near the cathedral suggests a comfortable upbringing for Tagle, one that allowed him to attend Manila's prestigious St. Andrew's School.

A plaque to a relative who battled Spanish colonial forces more than 100 years ago testifies to the family's lineage as local royalty of a sort.

Widely touted as a progressive and reformer, Tagle notably spoke out against former president Rodrigo Duterte's deadly drug war while archbishop of Manila, a post he held from 2011 to 2019.

An eager adopter of social media, the man nicknamed "Chito" also maintains an official Facebook page that is updated daily with messages for his nearly 640,000 followers.

But, like Pope Francis who died last month, Tagle has hewed closely to the Church's traditional teachings on issues such as abortion and divorce.

And while he called out fellow bishops at a 2019 Vatican summit on sex abuse, a watchdog group last week named him as one of two cardinals they said could not be counted on to protect children.

The Philippines remains in the "dark ages" on the subject, said the director of BishopAccountability.org, noting just one victim in the country had ever come forward publicly.

The country's governing body of bishops would issue a statement a day later defending Tagle's track record.

- 'Our glory as Filipinos' -

Another Imus resident, lay minister Francisco Abella Jr. told AFP he is tempering his expectations for Tagle's chances to become the next pope.

"The cardinal told us he is not expecting it," he said of a conversation Tagle had with parish workers earlier this year.

"If he becomes the chosen one, it would be to our glory as Filipinos, but there are many contenders," Abella said.

Win or lose, Sister Narvaez said she believes Tagle will take it in stride -- just as he did at the spelling bee years ago.

"For two weeks, we prepared. He practically memorised the entire Webster's dictionary," Narvaez recalled.

"We lost by one word -- chartreuse."

His reaction was typical of a man she insists remains "one of the guys" when visiting Imus.

"He wasn't embittered by the experience. He did his best and that's all that counted."

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST