DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 Sept) – Mayor Sara Duterte thanked her supporters for the trust and confidence as she maintained a high statistical ranking in the latest Pulse Asia survey on the May 2019 senatorial elections but the presidential daughter reiterated she would like to seek reelection as the city’s chief executive in 2019.
“If the Dabawenyos will re-elect me, I would like to continue working for Davao City as Mayor,” Duterte said in a statement on Sunday.
She said the work she has done for the city when she was elected mayor for the first time in 2010 and her reelection in 2016 could have stirred the interests of the Filipinos.
The mayor obtained a voter preference of 39.5%, which landed her on the 5th to 6th place.
In February 2018, the mayor announced that she was leading Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), a new regional political party co-founded by four governors of the Davao Region as co-founders – Davao Occidental’s Claude Bautisa (president), Davao del Norte’s Antonio del Rosario (secretary general), Compostela Valley’s Jayvee Tyron Uy (treasurer), and Davao Oriental’s Nelson Dayanghirang (vice president).
The HNP is composed of mayors, councilors, and barangay executives in the region.
She said during the launch that they established HNP to push for what is good the region and that she has no plans of joining her father’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
The mayor will not run under Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (Hugpong), a local political party founded by her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, but under HNP.
On August 17, Mayor Duterte’s HNP led the fifth mass oath-taking attended by executives from 182 barangays of Davao City at the SMX Convention Center Davao. The HNP held mass oath taking for officials in Compostela Valley on July 19, Davao Oriental on July 1, Davao del Norte on August 3, and Davao Occidental and Davao del Sur on August 6.
Senator Grace Poe maintained her top post with a voter preference of 70.1%; Senator Cythia Villar (57.7%), 2nd to 3rd place; former Senator and now Taguig City Representative Pia Cayetano (54.4%), 2nd to 4th; Senator Nancy Binay (50.6%), 3rd to 4th; Senator Edgardo Angara, Jr. (37.1%), 5th to 7th; and former Senator Jinggoy Estrada (34.6%), 6th to 10th.
The polls showed Ilocos Governor Imee Marcos with a voter preference of 32.6% shared the 7th to 11th places with Senator Aquilino Martin Pimentel III (32.4%) while former Senator Lito Lapid (32.2%) and former Senator Sergio Osmeña (29.8%) landed at 8th to 17th.
Meanwhile, former Senator Manuel Roxas (27.7%), actor Robin Padilla (27.4%), former Senator Ramon Revilla, Jr. (27.4%), Mr. Ramon Tulfo (27.0%), Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Chief Ronald dela Rosa (27.0%), and Senator JV Ejercito (26.7%) completed the list of probable winners sharing the 11th to 17th places. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
