Two del Mars will go to the election office this afternoon, but it will be Cebu City Rep. Cutie del Mar who decides whose certificate of candidacy (COC) to submit.
“Because I’m the incumbent, I get to choose in the end,” Cutie told Cebu Daily News.
“We are both going to the Comelec. Let’s just see what’s going to happen from there. Our only competition is ourselves,” she said about her father Raul, offering a clue about their last-minute disclosure of who between them would actually run for the north district congressional seat.
Their main competition, Annabelle Rama also plans to file her bid today accompanied by her celebrity sons and actress daughter Ruffa Gutierrez. Rama said she wuld also bring two of her entertainment talents from Manila.
In Wednesday’s rally of Team Rama candidates at the Aznar Coliseum, Annabelle promised to give P1,000 in food coupons to every senior citizens in the city if she’s elected.
Last night, Cutie del Mar said she and her father “haven’t decided” yet who between them should run for Cebu City’s north district under the Bando-Osmena Pundok Kauswagan banner and Liberal Party.
She denied allegations that she and her father were keeping their plans a secret till the last minute to ajdust to the impact of Anabelle Rama’s entry, which would make Cutie back off in favor of a “stronger” opponent in her father.
Cutie said she was confident that Cebuanos are ‘intelligent voters’ who don’t get swayed by enterainers or their supporters.
“In Cebu we never made a basketball player or an artista win. We (My father and I) are not worried about a thing. I have done a good job and I don’t have anything to fear. Cebu is known to have the most intelligent voters,” Cutie said in an interview.
Asked how far they stand with the competition based on internal surveys, she replied: “This I can only say, I am smiling from ear to ear”. “For my father, it’s even better.”
The first-term congresswoman said it was never an issue between her and her father, former congressman Raul Del Mar, who was considered the stronger bet to face Annabelle Rama.
“We never discussed that…even in our (political) party,” she said. She said the indecision arose because both father and daughter are willing to give in to each other.
“My dad says I deserve a second term because he thinks I did a good job but I also say I think my dad should run because he was deputy speaker and experience-wise… he is way ahead of me,” Cutie said.
Both have nomination papers from the Liberal Party and have been prepared with their individual certificate of candidacy (COC) since Monday.
They’ve waited till the deadine today to file it.