By Raïssa Robles
I’m keenly watching what President Benigno Aquino III will do with the punching and hair-pulling case of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, and the dirty finger incidents involving Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his city councilor son Paul.
Because you see, their political relation is terribly complicated. They campaigned together last year.

Happy pre-dirty finger, pre-punching days for Sara and Rodrigo Duterte campaigning with PNoy and Mar Roxas in April 2010 - PHOTO SOURCE - http://jabasphere.com
A month before the polls last year, the incumbent Mayor Rodrigo Duterte announced in a political rally that he was supporting the Aquino-Mar Roxas tandem. In fact, he listed his political party affiliation with the Comelec the same as PNoy – Liberal Party.
However, his daughter Sara who was running for mayor, listed her party affiliation as PDP-Laban – the party of Jejomar Binay, now the Vice-President. The one below was taken from the Commission on Elections website. It shows their winning votes:
Despite Rodrigo Duterte’s open endorsement, PNoy and Roxas failed to win in Davao City. But the fight was quite close between PNoy and Joseph Estrada, Binay’s running mate .
Look at the scoreboard on Davao City in Congress’ official canvassing of votes for President:
Congress’ scoreboard below shows Binay winning over Roxas. In fact, Binay was the runaway winner among the four national candidates. Look at the scoreboard on Davao City in Congress’ official canvassing of votes:
Both Sara and Rodrigo Duterte of course got more votes than either Binay or PNoy (see first table above).
It’s interesting to see that they felt the need to straddle two political parties – LP and PDP-Laban – in order to defeat their political opponents in their home turf.
Davao City, along with General Santos City, are the model cities in Mindanao.
Davao City will play a role in the 2016 presidential polls. In terms of votes, Davao City is the most important place in the Davao Region since more than a third of all registered voters live there – 948,428 voters out of the 2,555,783 registered in the region as of 2010.
It’s also interesting to note that to this day, VP Binay has not openly defended his party mate Sara Duterte. Maybe keeping quiet is his way of defending her. But Binay has publicly taken the side of the Catholic bishops in their case involving the receipt of money from the state lottery to buy luxury vehicles.
What gives, do you think?
edvee cruz says
“Because you see, their political relation is terribly complicated. They campaigned together last year.” That’s the most you can say about PNoy’s non-action with the Duterte’s recent behavior in their fiefdom?? But about Binay’s non-action, you have a mouthful to say!? Let me guess: you’re not about to admit how mistaken you were in campaigning — yes, don’t deny it — for PNoy in the last elections, right? What would you think of this concept: objective journalism? Yes, it exists….strange as it may seem to you.
raissa says
I did not campaign for PNoy. I wrote about the untruths surrounding PNoy.
If pointing out the fact that he’s not autistic and mentally unbalanced is campaigning, you do have a strange way of defining campaigning.
Rallie F. Cruz says
Binay is a very good politician. Being a good man in politics is always out of the question however. He will always get his way, because he knows what and how he could deliver what people expect to see and hear not necessarily what people really need.
Luwi Cheng says
there is nothing complicated with politics of convenience. it is not suprising the the father would go this way and the daughter the other way. they are just hedging their bets. now i can understand why DILG is practically mute in the condemnation of that disgusting display of power by sara duterte. the investigation “kuno” being conducted by the DILG will lead to no where in the same way as what happened to that investigation done for the luneta hostage taking. wanna bet?