Incumbents and Families
A total of 18 incumbent councilors from the three districts of Davao are seeking reelection. Sixteen of them are under the ruling Hugpong party which Duterte heads. As in past elections, those who ran under Hugpong were guaranteed of victory.
This election also marks the entry of the second generation of political clans in Davao. All of them are running under Hugpong as well.
Louie John Bonguyan, son of Vice Mayor Luis Bonguyan, is running for councilor in the second district. Rachel Zozobrado is filling up for her father, incumbent third district councilor Jesus, who is on leave for health reasons.
Karlo Bello, son of former Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello, is running also for the third district.
Sammy Bangoy is filling up the post vacated by his relative, Gerald Bangoy, in the second district.
A notable newcomer in the council race is Edgar Ibuyan, longtime barangay captain of Bankerohan, who is running for the first district under Hugpong.
Another newcomer is Bayan Muna’s Jeppie Ramada, a guest candidate for Hugpong’s its eighth spot; Ramada is running in the third district.
Ramada was not included in the list of candidates Hugpong released to the media on Monday. Duterte explained that he has thought of including Ramada, owing to his alliance with Bayan Muna, but has to get a statement from the group to renounce its alleged links with the New People’s Army after the military reported finding campaign materials of the party-list group with the armed group in a recent encounter in the southern border of Davao City.
Bayan Muna has said this is another military propaganda to discredit the partylist.
The mayor did not comment on reports that administration congressman and House majority leader Prospero Nograles had a hand in preventing the inclusion of Ramada in Hugpong. Duterte and Nograles have forged an alliance earlier to work together for a unified slate for Davao.
Nograles denied this allegation, saying his agreement with Duterte is that he will leave the local slate to the mayor.
Another candidate, Gregorio Pantig of Lakas-CMD, is supposed to be in the slate of Hugpong.
Former councilors have also made their comeback bid, such as Allan Dolor, Myrna Dalodo-Ortiz, Atty. Reynaldo Reyes in the third district, and Tomas Monteverde in the second district.
Three-Way Fight
The exciting part of the local elections in Davao will be in the congressional race in the third and second district.
With incumbent Congressman Ruy Lopez finishing his third and final term in the third district, the seat is contested by three candidates, one of them Rene Elias Lopez, brother of Ruy. However, de Guzman and Isidro Ungab are running for the same position. De Guzman, who junked his earlier plan to run for vice mayor, is running under the opposition Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino.
Ungab, a former city councilor who lost in his first congressional bid in 2004, said that even as he is aligned with PDP-Laban and Hugpong, he will carry the Arroyo administration’s senatorial Team Unity slate.
Ungab said his platform will be to give more projects to the constituents of the third district, a move that the Lopezes allegedly failed to do in the past years.
A fourth candidate is Sonja Rodriguez from Kampi.
In the second district, it will be councilor Jimmy Dureza squaring off against incumbent Vincent Garcia.
Two other candidates are also vying for the second district seat: lawyer Abelardo Aportadera who ran in 2001, and Joel Batucan, an independent candidate.
2007 Elections
