DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 13 September) — “Politics is disastrous,” Mayor Sara Duterte said in response to a radio listener’s question on her plans for the 2022 Presidential elections.
In her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) last Friday, the mayor cut short the anchor’s reading of a listener’s question on running for President, following her earlier remark that more infrastructure plans of her administration would continue if she would run for reelection in 2022.
“Do not read comments like that. The name of this radio station is Davao City Disaster Radio, therefore, what we are going to discuss here is disaster. Is politics a disaster? Well, politics is disastrous,” she said.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte visits the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) XI Isolation Facility along C.P. Garcia Highway, Friday afternoon. 07 August 2020. Photo courtesy of the City Government of Davao FB page
The mayor did not say what her plans are in 2022. She asked listeners to “not mind the things that are beyond your control.”
Earlier in the program, the mayor talked about pursuing the expansion plan for the decades-old City Hall complete with an underground parking at the nearby Rizal Park.
“That would remain as a plan. But it depends, well, if you will still re-elect me as mayor of Davao City — as if I would run — that can still happen,” she said.
The mayor is on her second three-year term from 2016 although she had served as mayor from 2010 to 2013 with her father Rodrigo Duterte as vice mayor, and was vice mayor to her then mayor-father from 2007 to 2010.
Mayor Duterte’s running mate in the 2016 elections was elder brother Paolo who resigned as vice mayor on December 25, 2017. In the 2019 polls, she ran with younger brother Sebastian, a first-timer in politics.
That mayor said she would focus on her current work of addressing issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic such as generating more jobs, getting the businesses operational at 100-percent capacity, reviving the economy, and ensuring there is money circulating in the city.
She said her administration would focus on completing the new buildings of the City Library, Museo Dabawenyo, City Engineer’s Office, and City Health Office.
“But, of course, at the end of every term, we will always endorse everything to the new administration. Usually, the existing plans are always laid down, those that have been accomplished, those that are ongoing, and those that have yet to be accomplished, so that the next administration can do it, and there is continuity,” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
