Mayor Sara Duterte is her own person, says Davao Del Norte Governor and HNP Secretary-General Anthony Del Rosario
MANILA, Philippines — Should Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte finally decides to run for the presidency in the 2022 National Elections, she will campaign for a type of governance that is independent of influence from previous administrations, including the incumbent.
This according to Davao Del Norte Governor Anthony Del Rosario who is the secretary general and con-current spokesperson of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), Mayor Sara’s political party.
In an interview with Inquirer.net, Del Rosario said that Mayor Sara is her own person.
“The years that I’ve know her, I can tell you that she is totally different from her father. We have already seen it in Davao City when she assumed the mayorship after her father, she did not follow exactly the programs that her father started. As a matter of fact there were policies and programs implemented by her father as mayor that she changed when she became mayor of Davao City,” Del Rosario said.
Continuation of some of President Rodrigo Duterte’s programs and policies is a possibility, but Del Rosario said Mayor Sara may opt for change.
“I think I can almost 100% say that while she might consider continuing some of the programs of the current president, I suspect that a lot of it might change depending on what her thoughts are and her opinions are with regards to the issues at hand. She’s totally different from her father,” Del Rosario stressed.
The reality is, in spite of the clamor and efforts of HNP to push Mayor Sara to run for the presidency, nothing is final until the mayor of Davao City so declares herself.
The secretary-general of HNP said that in as much as they want Mayor Sara to declare with finality if she’s running for president or not, the decision to run is an arduous process that only she will eventually make.
“She needs time and it’s a process that she has to undergo and we understand that the process that she’s undergoing. We fully support the process that she’s undergoing. We just have to give her the space that she needs in order to move at the correct pace that she is willing to move at,” Del Rosario explained.
HNP is urging Mayor Sara to decide before October.