FILE PHOTO

Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP), the regional political party of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is hopeful that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte will changes his mind and drop his vice presidential bid and allow his daughter to run for president in 2022.

This could be the scenario came October or that’s what they believe things will be, at best. As supporters of Duterte-Carpio echoing the call in social media that President Digong should give way and allow Mayor Sara to run alone in the national election, Anthony Del Rosario HnP spokesperson said in virtual press briefing.

“She has been very consistent from the start in the sense that she has maintained that the Duterte-Duterte tandem will never happen… that she is against it,” “Only one Duterte will run in 2022. I think that’s the message she wanted the people to know,” Del Rosario added.

“While the President has accepted the nomination of PDP Laban as vice president, we are still hopeful and praying that he will change his mind by October,” he said.

The Commission on Elections scheduled the one-week filing of Certificates of Candidacy (CoC) for all elective positions for the 9 May 2022 national and local elections from 1 to 8 October 2021.

Last Thursday Duterte-Carpio declared that she will not seek the presidency in the next year’s elections, respecting a deal with her father that only “one Duterte” will gun for a national position.

A day before her pronouncement, the ruling PDP Laban party on 8 September formally nominated Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Duterte as its official standard-bearers for the next polls.

Earlier, Duterte-Carpio disclosed the last time she talked to her father, he intimated to her that his Plan A is to have Go run for president and he for VP; while his Plan B is to have her seek the presidency with Go as her VP bet.

Despite Duterte-Carpio’s pronouncement that there will be no Palace run for her, Del Rosario said their allies remain positive that she will reconsider her position by next month.

“Everybody is still waiting until October to see what will really happen,” he said, noting that none of the HnP’s allies signified that it’s no longer joining the coalition.

At least five national political parties have joined forces to support Duterte-Carpio’s possible presidential candidacy around July this year.

Lakas-CMD, National Unity Party, Nacionalista Party, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, and People’s Reform Party have “signified their interest to join” the HnP coalition to back the Davao chief executive.

“We are still hopeful that she will run. (HnP and its allies’ support) have not changed. We are still optimistic that Mayor (Sara) will change her mind,” Del Rosario said.

Less than a month before the filing of CoC, HnP has yet to launch the coalition as they are still finalizing a memorandum of agreement (MoA) between and among all parties.

Under the MoA, HnP will have the final say to the coalition’s choice for President, Vice President, and 12 Senators.