“I’m afraid of the politics in Rome,“ Sister Marilena Narvaez told AFP from their shared home neighbourhood, south of Manila.
That view is an outlier in Imus, a densely populated city where both grew up and the 67-year-old Tagle began his career.
Still, British bookmaker William Hill has Tagle a 3-1 chance to win, second behind 9-4 Italian favourite Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
“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.
“We’re praying for it to happen,“ said Corazon Reno, 72, another courtyard vendor.
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.
Comfortable beginnings
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.
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.
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 country's governing body of bishops would issue a statement a day later defending Tagle's track record.
Another Imus resident, lay minister Francisco Abella Jr. told AFP he is tempering his expectations for Tagle's chances to become the next pope.
“If he becomes the chosen one, it would be to our glory as Filipinos, but there are many contenders,“ Abella said.
“For two weeks, we prepared. He practically memorised the entire Webster’s dictionary,“ Narvaez recalled.
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.”
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