Sara Duterte bids farewell to Davao City for ‘bigger challenge’ ahead

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio in her last State of the City Address. Screengrab from Facebook / City of Davao

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Friday formally bade the city farewell for “a bigger challenge” ahead, referring to her vice presidential bid in the May 9, elections.

In her pre-recorded last State of the City Address (SOCA), Duterte-Carpio claimed to having had “nightmares” and “mental anguish” as she served as mayor. Nevertheless, she said she was honored to have led the city.

“Dabawenyos desire the best and serving you is like serving a god that can never be pleased. My work gave me nightmares and mental anguish but it’s been an honor – a great, great honor – to have been chosen by you. And it’s been a pleasure to make not only memories with you — but also history,” she said.

“However, today, allow me to formally- and with a heavy heart – say farewell… I have been called to join the race for a bigger challenge. This is a challenge that gives me the opportunity to spread my wings wider, to soar higher, and reach new heights – with the support of our fellow Filipinos – for our beloved country,” she added.

The vice presidential candidate recalled securing the Davao City mayoralty in the 2016 polls after a brief respite from politics, noting this was the same year her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, was elected as the country’s president.

“My 2016 return to City Hall allowed me to revisit the first time you confidently elected me to become your mayor in 2010. It was a victory that is now known as the biggest election landslide victory in the history of our city,” she said.

“They say it’s hard for us to break the glass ceiling — but in Davao City, where we say ‘Life is Here,’ we have been breaking that glass ceiling all this time. When I was elected as the youngest and the only woman as mayor of our city, it was a historic moment not only for me, but for every Dabawenya who dared, worked hard, and succeeded,” she added.

She cited the accomplishments the city has achieved together with the police and the military as well as the city’s residents.

“Let us make this day a day of celebration of the victories that we have made after we started our nearly six years journey— a journey we called Byaheng Do30, where we identified 10 priority areas of development,” she told her constituents.

These priority areas are education, health, poverty alleviation, infrastructure development, solid waste management and environment, agriculture, investment and tourism, transportation planning and traffic management, disaster risk reduction and mitigation, and peace and order, according to Duterte-Carpio.

In bidding her city goodbye, Duterte-Carpio expressed confidence that her successor “will be able to sustain, if not surpass, what we have achieved, and take Davao City even higher.”

“I leave you with a city buoyed by a stronger economy, a stronger citizenry, with programs and services institutionalized to ensure continuity – a city that has so much more potential for greatness,” she said.

She then thanked Dabawenyos for their “patience in letting me grow from a shy neophyte in 2007 to a confident leader today is a gift not all public servants are lucky enough to receive.”

“You gave me wings and you taught me how to fly. Your love made me who I am today,” she added.

Further, she said she will treat as an inspiration the “indomitable spirit of the Dabawenyos – young and old, rich and the needy, men and women – who refused to give up and surrender to anything that comes our way to stop us from achieving our dreams.”

The mayor also thanked her family for their “never-ending support,” as well as officials of the city and other agencies she has worked with, the private sector, sectoral groups, the diplomatic community, the police and military, and her constituents.

“Dabawenyos desire the best and serving you is like serving a god that can never be pleased. My work gave me nightmares and mental anguish but it’s been an honor – a great, great honor – to have been chosen by you. And it’s been a pleasure to make not only memories with you — but also history,” she added.

Duterte-Caprio also recalled the awards and citations the city government received from 2016 to 2021.

“These accomplishments were not achieved overnight; these were the product of decades worth of hard work – the hard work not only of the local government but of every honest, disciplined, responsible Dabawenyo doing his best to provide for his family,” she said.

Duterte-Carpio cited the city’s “efforts to building more infrastructure, enhancing our revenue generation efforts, strengthening our security and improving the delivery of our social services, while also continuously learning, embarking on business and tourism missions, and forging partnerships with other Philippine cities and localities abroad.”

“For 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Davao City had a total combined revenue of P10.4 billion, 39.8 percent higher than our pre-pandemic revenues. Of this amount, P4.4 billion was generated by local sources,” the mayor also reported.

Duterte also said the city government obtained loans to finance major projects for the development of the city.

“As we continue to implement the projects, we have also been allocating ample budget every year to diligently pay back our loans. This year, we have allocated P46.7 million in the 2022 budget to cover the remaining loan balance, and by the end of the first half of Calendar Year 2022, Davao City will be debt-free,” she added.

From 2016 to 2021, she said the city government spent a total of P8.2 billion from its annual development fund for both infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects.

She said over 3,000 infrastructure projects were completed, including 1,424 roads, 51 bridges, 180 school buildings, 63 office buildings, 44 barangay halls, 84 health centers, 9 police stations, 748 irrigation and canal projects, 172 water systems, 11 electrification projects, and 669 other structures.

Still, Duterte-Carpio recognized that there had been “roadblocks after roadblocks after roadblocks, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic was the “greatest among them.”

Such obstacles also included the peace and order problem in the Pacquibato district, which Duterte-Carpio said is now “insurgency-free.”

“These are bitter reminders of the tough times that we went through together as a people. But at the same time, they also allow us to remember always our humanity and our relentless collective pursuit for justice, for peace, for development. And our job as your elected leaders is to ensure that we live in a place where there is justice, there is peace, there is development,” the mayor said.

Duterte-Carpio was supposed to run for reelection in the 2022 polls. However, she withdrew her candidacy to instead seek the vice presidency alongside former Senator “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

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