FILE – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Davao City mayor and vice presidential aspirant Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio now officially chairs the Lakas-CMD party, with Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. as her co-chair.
Duterte-Carpio was elected during Lakas-CMD’s online national council meeting on Thursday.
In her speech, Duterte-Carpio urged her partymates to “work together to become an ally of the Filipino people.”
“Sa totoo lang, hindi ko kailanman inakala na darating ang araw na ito. Masaya po ako sa Davao City. Marami pa sana akong gustong gawin bilang mayor ng aming siyudad. Pero alam po natin ang nangyari,” Duterte-Carpio said.
(To be honest, I didn’t imagine that this day will come. I am happy for Davao City. I still have a lot of plans for our city. But we know what happened.)
“Hindi ko na po mahindian ang mga Pilipino. Hindi ko na po mahindian ang Pilipinas,” she added.
(I can no longer say no to our fellow Filipinos, our country the Philippines.)
House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, who serves as the president of Lakas-CMD, said that Duterte-Carpio will serve as a “guiding light” of the party.
The election came after Revilla offered his chairmanship post to Duterte-Carpio on Wednesday. The Davao City mayor accepted the offer just hours after.
Duterte-Carpio is running for the vice presidency with former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who will vie for the presidential seat, as her running mate.
One of the leaders of Lakas-CMD is former President and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who serves as the party’s president emeritus.
Duterte-Carpio and Macapagal-Arroyo are not strangers to each other. In 2018, it was said that Duterte-Carpio played a hand in the ouster of then House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and the installment of Macapagal-Arroyo at the helm of the lower chamber.