Barangay Captain Duterte got 2,007 votes followed by businessman Tata Kurato, with 948 votes. But the voter turnout was observed to be very low as in other areas in the city. As of May 2007, the barangay has at least 9,000 voters.
Village officials in other parts of the city said the Duterte scion might vie for the presidency of the 184-member Association of Barangay Councils, which could launch him an ex-officio post at the 26-member Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council).
But incumbent ABC president Barangay 23-C chair Amilbangsa Manding, the lone Moro member of the city council, was reelected.
Paolo, who was first touted to be heir to the Duterte family’s political hold in the city, follows the steps of younger sister Sara who won landslide over a single opponent in the May 2007 local elections. The siblings' entry to politics signals third generation Dutertes in the city's political life from Rodrigo’s father, Vicente, governor of the undivided Davao. Davao in 1967 was divided into Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Oriental. In 1998, Compostela Valley was carved out of Davao del Norte.
Mayor Duterte said he supported his son's candidacy. "I even mention the name of other people, what more that of my son?" he told reporters on election day.
Duterte admitted pitching for Paolo at his miting de avance in Catalunan Grande on Friday. Paolo reportedly was in Manila for the vice mayor's wedding to lawyer Manases Carpio at the Santuario de San Antonio in Makati on October 27.
One of Duterte's supporters, Dodong Ampe backed out from the race after knowing the younger Duterte's bid. The mayor and his Hugpong Party claimed they were surprised at the younger Duterte's last minute filing of candidacy on October 19.
The mayor, however, was later vocal about his support for his son's candidacy, invoking family, since the law mandates that village elections should be left non-partisan.
Catalunan Grande is one of 54 barangays in Davao City's first congressional district, which covers the downtown area where House Majority Floor Leader Prospero Nograles is the incumbent congressman.
Since the May 2007 elections, relations between Duterte and Nograles have soured even if officially they say they are not against each other.
On remarks allegedly from Nograles that their children, lawyers Karlo and Sara, will face off in the 2010 elections for mayor, Duterte, who is serving the third term of his second three-term reign, said, “the problem is, angayan ba siyang mag mayor, bise mayor, konsehal (is he fit to be mayor, vice mayor, or councilor). It’s not for me to say. It is for the people to say," he told the city government's Gikan sa masa, para sa masa (from the masses, for the masses) weekly TV show over ABS-CBN Davao last Sunday. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
