Mayor Sara Duterte asks Dabawenyos to pray for Nograles soul

DAVAO CITY — Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio asked all Dabawenyos to pray for the eternal repose of the soul of former House Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Nograles died on Saturday at the age of 71, said his son and Cabinet Secretary Karlo  Nograles.

Before delivering her speech during the closing ceremony on Saturday afternoon of the weeklong Palarong Pambansa 2019 hosted by this city, Duterte-Carpio offered a moment of silence for Nograles.

Nograles had a decades-long political rivalry with her father, former city mayor and now President Duterte, peaking in the 2010 election season when he faced off with the President’s daughter for the city’s mayoral race.

The two mended ties in November 2015, with the Nograles family supporting Duterte’s presidential bid.

Karlo, then the representative of the first district of Davao City, a position held by his father for five terms since 1989 until 2010, was appointed cabinet member by President Duterte in November 2018.

The older Nograles was a lawyer who placed second in the 1971 Bar examinations.

Nograles also represented the victims of human rights violations during the regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, and then supported the campaign of the late President Corazon Aquino in the 1986 snap elections, according to a Palace statement.

Nograles, fondly known as “Boy,” was first elected representative of the first district of Davao City in 1989 for a three-year term and won again in 1995.

In 2001, Nograles reclaimed the district’s congressional seat and was serving his third consecutive term in 2008 when he was elected House Speaker during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the current House Speaker.

When his term at the House ended in 2010, he launched a bid for the Davao City mayoral seat but lost to Duterte-Carpio.

It was during Nograles’ time that all employees of the House of Representatives – from utility to congressmen each received P65,000 as the “Speaker’s bonus’ during his last term.

Karlo said his father’s years in public service has been punctuated by his election as the first House Speaker from Mindanao.

He added that his father was dedicated to uplifting the welfare of Dabawenyos and the people of Mindanao.