DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 11 May) — Under a new leadership, Davao City residents will expect, among others, more social services and financial assistance, and equitable allocation in the city’s budget, including reducing confidential and intelligence funds, mayoralty candidate Karlo Alexei Nograles vowed during the miting de avance Saturday night in Buhangin.
The 48-year old Nograles is challenging former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is running for an eighth term as city mayor. Except for the years 1998 to 2001 when Duterte could not run for mayor because of term limits, Duterte served as mayor for 22 years – 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2010 and 2013 to 2016.
The Dutertes have held the mayoralty of the city for 34 years: the 80-year old patriarch for 22 years, his daughter Sara for nine years and his son Sebastian for three years. The latter is running for Vice Mayor.
Nograles, who is running as an Independent candidate but is believed backed by the Marcos administration, has teamed up with the Garcias of the 2nd district and the Al-ags of the 3rd. district to challenge the Dutertes.
Confetti rains on Karlo Alexei Nograles, candidate for Davao City mayor (center) and his team at the end of the miting de avance Saturday night, 10 May 2025 in Buhangin. Nograles’ team is asking voters to vote for a change in leadership in the city ruled by the Dutertes for 34 years now. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Nograles’s sister, PBA party-list representative Margarita Ignacia “Migs” Nograles (Ind.) is challenging Duterte’s son Paolo, in the first congressional district. Paolo is running for a third and last term against Migs and three other Independent candidates — Maria Victoria “Mags” Maglana, a peace and development worker and independent consultant; Pastor Janeth Jabines and businessman Rex Labis.
Unlike previous campaign sorties where the Nograles siblings danced before they spoke, neither Karlo nor Migs danced at the miting de avance. The other candidates danced or sang.
Nograles promised more financial assistance and social services before a crowd of nearly a thousand supporters from the city’s first, second and third districts.
The financial assistance includes scholarships, medical assistance, burial assistance, capital for micro and small business investments, among others.
Nograles said the Lingap para sa Mahirap program which was institutionalized in 2001 as a city government program under then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to provide hospital bill assistance in government and private hospitals, medicine, medical and laboratory procedure, funeral/burial assistance — will be increased. The current Lingap program supports as high as P10,000 per application.
If Nograles wins, he said, they will raise it to P25,000.
The Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council) has allocated P609.3 million for the Lingap program for 2025.
HELPS
Nograles spelled out his platform into the acronym HELPS for health, education, livelihood, peace and order, and other social services.
He also vowed faster processing of business permits, more well-lit streets in the barangays and additional CCTV cameras.
Nograles is the son of Rodrigo Duterte’s political nemesis, Prospero, who later became House Speaker.
The Nograles family has served as first district representative for 25 years: Prospero for 15 years (1989-1992; 1995-1998, 2001-2010) and Karlo for nine (2010-2019) although he resigned in late 2018 when he was appointed as Cabinet Secretary by then President Duterte. Nograles was later appointed by Duterte as chair of the Civil Service Commission, a term cut short when he resigned last year to run for mayor.
Karlo’s running mate, Bernard “Bernie” Al-ag, took over as Vice Mayor from January 2018 to June 30, 2019 after Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte resigned in late 2017. Al-ag is running against Sebastian Duterte, who succeeded him as Vice Mayor in 2019.
In the second district, Paolo Duterte’s eldest son Omar, who entered politics in 2023 by running unopposed as barangay chair of Buhangin Proper, is challenging the political turf of the Garcias. He is running against Councilor Javi Garcia Campos, grandson of Manuel Garcia. The Garcias have represented the second congressional district for 33 years — since 1992.
In the third district, Wilberto “Nonoy” Al-ag, elder brother of Nograles’ running mate, Bernard Al-ag, is challenging the Duterte-backed Isidro Ungab, and Ruy Lopez, son of the late mayor and representative, Elias Lopez.
Nograles said that if he wins, they will immediately implement his HELPS agenda and see how this would be aligned in the current budget. The elected mayor in the 2025 polls will be using the 2025 budget approved by the previous administration.
He hopes his electoral agenda would be prioritized in the 2026 budget.
Equitable budget; services take priority, reduce confidential funds
Nograles said their platform of government manifests the team’s priorities, priorities that he said were based on consultations with residents.
“Yung importante para sa kanila, na maramdaman nila na matanggap nila ang serbisyo sa ating mga kababayan” (What is important for them is to feel that they are receiving thse basic services). So, that takes priority. That takes priority over all.”
In their HELPS governance agenda, Nograles stressed that Peace and Order, under which confidential funds are allocated, is just one of five priorities “so hindi talaga pwede na yung confidential funds will take the bulk of that. Kasi limang programa ito. Kung pwedeng ma-distribute evenly as much as possible para ma-fulfill natin itong lima,(it cannot be that confidential funds will take the bulk of that. Because these are five programs. If we can distribute the budget evenly as much as possible to be able to fulfill these five then we’ll have to do that).
“It’s up to the voters,” said lawyer Karlo Alexei B. Nograles, who is challenging the bid of former President Rodrigo Duterte for an 8th term as mayor of Davao City. Duterte is presently detained in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he is facing charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court. The Dutertes have ruled the city for 34 years. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
He noted the role of confidential and intelligence funds in supporting peace and order, but Nograles cautioned against allowing them to dominate the city’s annual budget.
“If it entails reducing the confidential funds, the intelligence funds, without sacrificing the quality of peace and order and, in fact, with efficient use of these confidential funds, maging better pa ang peace and order ng Davao City, then that’s, I think, the better way of utilizing the funds of the city,” Nograles said.
“We have 15 billion, almost 15 billion annually. So, with 15 billion and five major programs, how will you divide the money? If you divide it evenly, you do the math,” he said, adding, it will not be sustainable if “ilagay mo lahat sa (if you put that all under) confidential funds. So, necessarily, we’ll have to reduce that. We still have to take care of the health of our people, education, their livelihood, and social services.”
In the 2025 budget of the city, the biggest chunk – P2 billion out of the P14.3 billion budget is on peace and order and public safety program, even as the city has declared itself as “insurgency-free” and “terrorist-free” since March 2023.
The P2B budget for peace and order is almost twice the one billion-peso budget for the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
READ: In “insurgency-free” Davao City, biggest chunk of the budget is still for peace and order
It’s up to the voters
During the miting de avance, Nograles acknowledged Campos and Al-ag, for remaining strong and resilient despite the bullying and harassment they experienced during the campaign.
On Friday, the night before the Team Nograles’ miting de avance, Mayor Sebastian Duterte said the Nograles-Garcia-Al-ag team challenged the Dutertes because they have the financial backing and support from the Marcos administration.
“Kung naa sila’y kwarta ihatag, dawata lang! Inyoha man nang kwarta,” (If they have money to give, just receive it. It’s your money), the mayor said.
In earlier sorties, Mayor Duterte said whatever their opponents promise have already been implemented by the Dutertes.
In response, Bernard Al-ag, Mayor Duterte’s opponent in the vice mayoralty race, asked the crowd if City Hall had a solution to the city’s problems such as traffic congression, lack of public transport, the difficulties in securing a business permit, problems on sanitary landfills. The crowd responded, “wala, wala” (none, none).
“Ang atong problema sa medical assistance, burial assistance, pag duol nimo sa Lingap, gamay kaayo’g hatag, dos mil, tres mil, hangtod dies mil lang. Naa’y solusyon gihatag ang City Hall, wala? (Our problem with medical assistance, burial assistance—when you approach Lingap, the help you get is very little: two thousand, three thousand, up to ten thousand pesos only. Has City Hall provided any solution?)” Al-ag asked the crowd. “Wala, wala,” the supporters replied.
Al-ag said the solution to the city’s problems is to “replace all leaders, from city mayor, vice-mayor, and city councilors” and to give them a chance to lead the city.
“It’s up to the voters. Voters’ decision na ito,” Nograles said.
He said they’ve gone around the city’s 182 barangays to explain their platform of government so “it is now up to the voters to choose. What is important is they have a choice. And you have to make your choice this coming election.”
Whatever happens on Monday – election day – Nograles is grateful that “we are given the chance to tell the people what our plans are for the city of Davao. If we win, we will fulfill that commitment,” he said.
“If we make it, then it means that the people, the majority, want these changes to happen,” he said. (Ian Carl Espinosa and Carolyn O. Anguillas / MindaNews)