President Rodrigo Duterte and daughter Sara, mayor of Davao City. MindaNews photo
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 08 March) – Mayor Sara Duterte told her supporters that “she is different from her father,” President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who decided to file his candidacy at the last minute as a substitute candidate in the 2016 presidential election.
In her program over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Monday, the presidential daughter said that she does not intend to succeed her father, whose term will end on June 30, 2022.
Mayor Duterte said that “she will not copy the style of her father if she will ever decide to run for president.”
“President Duterte and I are different. We are not the same persons. If that was his style, mine will be different,” she said, referring to her father’s last minute substitution during the 2016 presidential derby.
“If I will run, I will let you know ahead of time. I will ask you now to unite and help me out not only in the campaign and election but also in my work itself. That is what I am going to do, but I’m not doing it because I don’t have any intention of running,” she added.
As a non-member of any national political party, she will be barred from running as a substitute candidate, according to the mayor.
Mayor Duterte chairs the Hugpong ng Pagbabago, a regional political party she founded in 2019.
Last February 22, she ordered the removal of the “Run Sara Run” tarpaulins and billboards mounted by her supporters around many areas in the city, telling her supporters that posting them without paying government fees is prohibited.
She urged her supporters to use their money to buy food for the people in need, instead of spending it on printing of tarpaulins and organizing motorcades to urge her to run for the 2022 presidential race.
Mayor Duterte served as vice mayor from 2007 to 2010, mayor from 2010 until 2013, elected mayor again in 2016 when her father ran for president, and re-elected in 2019.
“Before January ended, I already said that I do not intend to run for president in 2022. But I noticed that people don’t believe me, or they refuse to believe me… We cannot move on if you don’t believe me,” she said.
Even after “she has made her decision final,” she said there are still people, including a high-ranking official of the Duterte administration, who have vowed to support her if she decides to be a presidential candidate.
Mayor Duterte said the unnamed official told her that “he was in disbelief and that he was praying that I would still change my decision.”
She reminded the public that she did not authorize any individuals to collect money on her behalf to fund her alleged candidacy for the presidency.
