DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 07 July) – Wait until the filing of certificate of candidacy from October 1-8, Mayor Sara Duterte told supporters who wanted to know if she was planning to run as president in the 2022 general elections.
“There is a deadline and that is October 8, so let’s wait for the filing of certificate of candidacy from October 1 to 8,” she said over Davao City Disaster Radio (DCDR 87.5) on Monday.
She said she would not wait for December and run as a last-minute substitution for another candidate like her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, did.
She explained that this option is unavailable to her because she does not belong to any national political party.
“We will not wait until December for substitution because it is not for me. I’m not a member of any national political party. I am only a member of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), which is a regional political party. I think the questions of the people will be answered until the filing of candidacy,” she said.
The mayor is chair and co-founder of HNP.
The elder Duterte, then mayor of Davao City, substituted Martin Diño as the standard bearer of Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan after the latter withdrew his candidacy in October 2015.
Duterte appointed Diño as undersecretary of the Department Interior and Local Government in 2018.
Mayor Duterte thanked former defense secretary Gilbert Teodoro, who returned to Davao City last Saturday to receive his second dose of Sinovac’s CoronaVac, for his “trust and confidence.”
Teodoro, who ran as president in 2010 but lost to his cousin, the late president Benigno S. Aquino III, had expressed interest to be the mayor’s running mate if she decides to run for the country’s highest position.
Supporters have been calling for a Duterte daughter-father tandem in 2022.
But the president’s daughter, who has been topping surveys on possible presidential candidates, earlier said she sees neither a possible tandem with her father nor her running for president. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
