Sara: Election crucial to Duterte administration

DAVAO CITY — The election today is crucial for President Duterte to deliver his campaign promises, according to his daughter Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Electing allies into the Senate would be vital in moving forward the President’s programs, said Duterte-Carpio in a short press briefing after casting her vote at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School in this city early on Monday.

“In the past three years, we witnessed how President Duterte struggled to get the support of the Senate in pushing for what he wanted to deliver for our country especially his campaign promises,” Duterte said.

Duterte-Carpio pointed out that up to this time, Congress still has to come up with a decisive approach to solve the traffic woes in Metro Manila and other metropolitan cities outside of the National Capital Region.

The Duterte administration has also been unable to fast-track the infrastructure development not just in Metropolitan Luzon but also all over the country.

Until last April, the Duterte administration had to work on a reenacted budget – putting on hold many of development and economic agenda of his government – as it struggled to get through the Senate the P3.75 trillion national budget for 2019, while the Senate and the House locked horns over the alleged unconstitutional realignments or “pork” in the budget.

The budget was finally signed by the President on April 15 but he vetoed P95.3 billion in insertions that the Lower House made to the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Duterte-Carpio explained this was the motivation behind her efforts, through Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP), to campaign for senatorial candidates who are supportive of the President;s agenda.

“We really worked hard during this campaign to present to the people the senatorial candidates who understand the vision of our President,” Duterte-Carpio said.

She added that they actively distributed sample ballots but they could only hope that the people who received it would vote for the line-up that HnP campaigned for.

“It is an election. It is a democracy. People are allowed to choose who they want to vote for,” she said.

While there was no assurance of victory yet for everyone in HnP’s slate, Duterte-Carpio encouraged voters to exercise their right regardless of who and which party they support.

“I am feeling a bit nervous but I would like to request everyone to go out and vote whoever they think, based on their personal assessment and appreciation, should lead us in Senate and their respective local government units,” she said.

She refused to speculate on the outcome of the elections but asserted that the results reflect the “will of the majority” of Filipinos.

She warned the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic not to interfere with the final results of the elections.

“I ask Comelec and Smartmatic to be faithful to the elections and not intervene on the results,” she said.

President Duterte was expected to vote in the same polling center this afternoon.