DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/ 02 Oct) – City Mayor Sara Duterte maintained she will run for reelection in the 2019 midterm elections while her elder brother, resigned vice mayor Paolo Duterte, will run for representative of the city’s 1st District.
The mayor said she has not changed her mind about running for the Senate despite making it in the top 12 of the recent surveys on senatorial candidates for next year.
She obtained a voter preference of 39.5%, which landed her on the 5th to 6th place in the September 2019 Pulse Asia survey on the May 2019 senatorial elections.
“I am honored and I am overwhelmed by the trust and confidence of the people but I’d like to run for reelection as mayor of Davao City at this point,” she told reporters on Monday.
Her brother said during an event of the regional political party Hugpong ng Pagbabago at the SMX Convention Center Davao on August 17 that he would run next year with his sister’s approval.
The former vice mayor resigned from his post on December 25 last year, months after he and his brother-in-law lawyer Manases Carpio, Sara’s husband, were dragged into the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu (meth) from China that arrived via the Manila International Container in Tondo, Manila on May 16, 2017.
He and his brother-in-law were tagged as members of the so-called Davao Group that was reportedly behind the smuggling. Both appeared in a Senate probe on September 7, 2017 where they denied the allegation.
Mayor Duterte revealed she has chosen her running mate but did not give a name saying they have yet to finalize the lineup.
“Sa vice mayor naa nakoy napili but dili nako sya ma-announce because naa pay rearrangements, naa pay gusto mugokod for the filing (For the vice mayor, I have already my choice but I cannot announce just yet because there are still rearrangements, and there are still those who expressed the intention)” she said. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)