DAVAO CITY—The daughter-and-father tandem of Vice Mayor Sara Duterte and outgoing Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and candidates identified with their political group Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod dominated the city’s recently concluded polls.
Sara Duterte became the first woman mayor of Davao City by an overwhelming lead of 228, 240 votes over her opponent, former House Speaker Prospero Nograles. Nograles garnered a total of 160, 225 votes against Sara’s total of 388,465 votes in the last elections. (See table of results of the Davao polls)
As the new mayor, Sara switches role with her father, the outgoing mayor who served the city for 19 years.
The elder Duterte ran and won as vice mayor. He won by a landslide over his opponent, Benjamin De Guzman, who did not even get one-fourth of the 388, 465 total votes he (Duterte) garnered in the last elections. De Guzman only got 105,962 votes, a measly 24 per cent of the total number of votes for Duterte. De Guzman, a former Duterte ally, had aligned himself with Duterte’s political nemesis Prospero Nograles, who ran as mayor in the recently-concluded polls.
However, Duterte’s candidate for the congressional seat in the first district, Mabel Acosta, did not make it against Nograles’ son Karlo. Karlo, who emerged as winner for the first district seat in the House of Representatives, saved the Nograleses from being kept out of Davao’s politics.
Davaoeños flock to the ground floor of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Building where a wide screen is mounted to show the canvassing of votes taking place at the session hall on the second floor. (davaotoday.com photo by Jose Hernani)
Karlo only won by 8,172 votes, a slim margin over Acosta. The first district was supposed to be a bailiwick of his father, the elder Nograles, who has served as the city’s first district congressional representative for 15 years until his term ends this year.
Of the 24 council seats in the three districts of the city, only two candidates of the Team Nograles made it against the overwhelming win of Hugpong candidates.
To ensure a grip on the first district, Duterte fielded Wendel Avisado and Melchor Quitain, who both served as city administrators under Duterte’s administration. Quitain also served as the city legal officer under Duterte for years.
Except for newcomers Joel Virador of Bayan Muna and Butch Ramirez of the city sports office, Duterte fielded familiar names; namely, re-electionists Emmanuel Galicia and Edgar Ibuyan in the first district. He also endorsed Nilo Abellera Jr., son of former councilor Nilo Abellera, and Leah Librado, sister of Angela Librado, a city councilor in the last nine years.
Only Jo Anne Bonguyan, a relative of former Vice Mayor Luis Bonguyan, made it among the Team Nograles candidates in the first district council slate. Pilar Braga, a re-electionist councilor who ran as independent, made it to the city council now dominated by Hugpong.
Bonguyan and Braga landed on the tail end of the council slate, dislodging Virador and Ramirez of Hugpong.
Avisado, Duterte’s city administrator for years, garnered the highest vote among the winning councilors.
Hugpong bets won all the council and congressional seats in the second district.
Mylene Garcia, Hugpong’s bet for the congress in the second district, easily won over Team Nograles’s candidate Joji Ilagan-Bian, who came in third in the tally.
In the third district, only one Team Nograles candidate made it to the city council.
Isidro Ungab, Duterte’s congressional bet, also won over Team Nograles’s Ruy Elias Lopez.
Meanwhile, Davaoeños overwhelmingly voted for deposed President Joseph Ejercito Estrada who won over other presidential bets here, garnering a total of 253,623 votes.
Despite Duterte’s endorsement, Noynoy Aquino just came in second with 204,713 votes. For the vice presidential bets, Jejomar Binay won in Davao over his opponent Mar Roxas; while the senators who made it to the magic eight in Davao included Jinggoy Estrada, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Juan Ponce Enrile, Franklin Drilon, Bong Revilla, Pia Cayetano, Sergio Osmeña III and Teofisto Guingona.
Except for Santiago and Osmeña III, all the senatorial candidates who made it to the Davao polls’ magic eight got an endorsement from Duterte.
Among the partylists, Gabriela Women’s Party and Bayan Muna emerged as the Davaoeño’s top two choices (davaotoday.com)
