Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Saturday filed her certificate of candidacy for a third and final term as local chief executive in the 2022 polls.
“I have been honored with the gift of trust and respect of many of our fellow Filipinos. Thank you to everyone who have expressed their support. Many of you do not know me and yet you carry me over your shoulders,” she said in a Facebook post after filing her COC at the local Commission on Elections office.
“Like the other millions of Filipinos, I share with Sara…you the same goal of living a peaceful and prosperous life in our country, today and in the many years to come. I call on everyone to work together for an honest, orderly, and credible election in May 2022,” she added.
Her youngest brother, Sebastian Duterte, would run for vice mayor.
Duterte-Carpio continues to lead the latest Pulse Asia Survey for the preferred presidential candidates for the May 2022 national elections despite her earlier pronouncement that she will not seek a national position if her father runs for vice president.
President Rodrigo Duterte, however, announced hours before his daughter's COC filing that he is already retiring from politics.
In Duterte's stead, Senator Bong Go filed his COC as vice presidential bet of PDP-Laban.
University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said Duterte-Carpio's pronouncement that she will not seek a national post was probably a tactic to generate publicity because Filipinos "love a reluctant candidate."
The latest Pulse Asia survey, conducted among 1,200 respondents from Sept. 6 to 11, showed 20 percent of them prefer Duterte-Carpio as their first choice for presidential candidate, followed by former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with 15 percent, Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso with 13 percent and Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao with 12 percent.
Others included in the survey were Sen. Grace Poe and Vice President Leni Robredo who came in 5th and 6th.
Lacson, who has declared he is running for president, occupied the 7th spot. With AFP
