‘Run, Sara, Run’ tarps sprout like mushrooms on Zamboanga del Sur highways

AGADIAN CITY—Rival political camps here appeared to share a common cry—for Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to run for president in 2022 to replace her father, President Rodrigo Duterte.

Streamers the size of cars and made of tarpaulin with oversized letters saying “Run, Sara, Run” started to draw attention when they appeared on highways in the province on Sunday (Feb. 7) in an apparent campaign to convince Duterte’s daughter to make a bid to replace her father as president, who is stepping down in 2022.

Jeesrel Himang, information officer of the provincial government, said Gov. Victor Yu and his wife first district Rep. Divina Grace Yu were behind the installation at first of two tarpaulin streamers near the city’s entry on the junction road to Labangan town and the Dumalinao town highway.

The husband-and-wife team, however, found itself being strange bedfellows with a rival political group in the push for Duterte’s daughter to run for president.

The Yus’ rival group, led by second district Rep. Leonardo Babasa Jr., also installed tarpaulin streamers with the same message in the towns of Guipos, Kumalarang, Dinas, Bayog, Tigbao and San Miguel, according to Babasa’s media relations officer Leo Santillan.

Santillan and Himang said the two groups would install more giant tarpaulin streamers in other towns of the province in the coming days.

The Davao City mayor had repeatedly expressed disinterest in running for president in 2022. Her father had also publicly commented that his daughter was not running to replace him.

Sara, in response to repeated queries about running for president in 2022, said she would run in 2034 instead.

TSB