Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio with Sen. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, when he was still speciall assistant to the president, at a Hugpong ng Pagbabago event in Compostela Valley in July 2018. (CONTRIBUTED)
MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said on Wednesday Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go “personally expressed” his offer to be her running mate in the 2022 elections, should she vie for the presidency.
Aside from Go, Duterte-Carpio said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian also expressed interest to run as her vice president.
The mayor earlier revealed that she had received two letters endorsed by her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, giving her the option to either support the Go-President Duterte tandem in the 2022 elections or take Go as her running mate.
President Duterte earlier bared his intention to run for vice president while Go rejected the offer of ruling party PDP-Laban to be its standard-bearer in the 2022 elections.
The mayor then denied the claim of her father that Sen. Imee Marcos would want to be her vice president.
The president earlier claimed that Marcos had visited Sara in Davao City hoping to get the mayor’s nod to be her running mate in the 2022 polls.
“This is not true. She visited me in Davao last May 29 to personally relay her birthday wishes. So far, this is the only visit she has made to me in Davao,” the mayor said in a Facebook post.
She added that “common friends” had relayed to her the offer of former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro to be her vice president.
There are also groups that want either House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez or Sen. Sonny Angara to be her running mate, Duterte-Carpio said. However, she said she could confirm this to be true.
Meanwhile, she said she only read reports of a possible tandem between her and former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Go, Imee Marcos, and Angara were elected as senators in 2019. Gatchalian’s term will end in 2022, but he can still vie for a senatorial seat in the next elections.
Romualdez likewise is eligible for another term in the House of Representatives in 2022.
Bongbong Marcos is said to be considering running in the 2022 polls, but remained, as of this writing, mum on the position he was eyeing.
However, Imee Marcos revealed that her brother was considering running for the presidency and was in talks with the two factions of the ruling party PDP-Laban.
The filing of certificates of candidacy for the 2022 elections runs from Oct. 1 to 8.
On another topic, Duterte-Carpio said she was not holding a grudge against Go concerning his relationship with the President.
She earlier challenged the president and Go to “own up publicly” their decision to run as a tandem and keep her name out of it.
Duterte-Carpio has not yet made a final decision on whether she would run for president or seek a final term as Davao City mayor in 2022.
According to her party, the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), she is carefully considering whether to run for the presidency and will make her decision on her own, not based on the opinion of other people or political parties.