President Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio during the enthronement ceremony of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito in Tokyo, Japan October 22, 2019. (REUTERS / file photo)
DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Duterte – Carpio has urged her supporters to back the vice-presidential bid of her father, President Rodrigo Duterte in the 2022 elections.
“Let us give him our strongest support on his plan to run as vice president,” the city mayor said even as she thanked more than 700 parallel groups pushing her to run for president.
The mayor said she had an “understanding” with her father that only one of them would run for a national position in the elections next year.
Early this month, President Duterte accepted the nomination of one faction of his party, the Partido ng Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), as its vice presidential candidate in the 2022 elections.
Mayor Duterte-Carpio then announced that she would not be running for president since her father would run for a national post.
She even said that she would not campaign for her father’s party.
This developed as a new group, the Hugpong Para Kay Sara (HPS), was formed to generate more support from political leaders and the grassroots in the hope that she would still change her mind and run for president.
Former Davao del Norte Governor Anthony G. del Rosario, HPS chair and spokesperson of the mayor’s regional political party Hugpong ng Pagbabago, said the group targeted 50,000 members from the 10,000 members that it had during its inception last month.
Aside from trying to convince the mayor to run for president, the new group is also trying to convince President Duterte to give up his plan to run for vice President and allow his daughter to run for the highest post of the land, according to Del Rosario.
He also noted that most of the key members of the new group had been key personalities in the administration of President Duterte; among them, former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., who convinced the former mayor-turned-President Duterte to run for the national post in 2016.
“We respect the mayor (Sara on her statement not to run). But we believe she is the best leader that can lead this country in the middle of this (COVID-19) pandemic,” Del Rosario added.
The former governor said HnP would soon sign agreements with other political parties for a coalition for the upcoming 2022 elections while awaiting Sara’s decision.