Will the long politically popular Garcia family name in the second district of Davao City manage to prevail over the Duterte name in the forthcoming Congressional election in this highly-urbanized metropolitan center in Mindanao?
We will know the answer to this question once the Board of Canvassers starts to count the last 500 to 1,000 remaining ballots in the whole of the second congressional district.
Yes, the political battle for Congressmen in the second and in the first districts of the city has become somewhat of a heated personal rivalry between the ruling clan Duterte and the Nograleses in the first district; and between Duterte and the Garcias in the second. In the former district, an immediate Duterte scion is up against the challenge of PBA Partylist Congresswoman Migs Nograles. In the second district a grandson of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, Omar who is barangay Captain of Buhangin, is pitted against first-time Second District Councilor Javi Garcia Campos. Omar Duterte is a son of incumbent first district Congressman Paolo Z. Duterte, himself under challenge by Congresswoman Nograles.
In the case of Garcia-Campos his family has been in political control of the second congressional district for the longest time. The Garcia stranglehold was only interrupted when then Vice Mayor of Davao City Cornelio Maskarino was able to snatch the Congress seat from then incumbent Manuel “Nonoy” Garcia for just a single term.
So deeply rooted are the Garcias that when election time comes the normal expectation is that it is again a Garcia who will prevail despite challenges from the Alterados and from the Dayanghirangs. At the end of the day, however, it is still a Garcia who comes out the winner.
Unfortunately for the politically dominant Garcias in the second district, the Dutertes appear to be interested in expanding their direct hold on the entire Davaoeno constituents. After a short honing up of Omar through the barangay elections the Dutertes appear to be aiming for a more direct control of the entire city. Thus, the Duterte patriarch, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, believes they might just have to tighten their hold on the first and the second districts of the city. The third though, is still under their loyal follower Cong. Isidro Ungab who is challenged by Toril’s Nonoy Al-ag.
With Omar’s father Cong. Pulong likely retaining his post in the first congressional seat despite a strong challenger in PBA Partylist lawmaker Migz Nograles, the Duterte may already have the belief that they are ready to grab the Second through Patriarch Rody’s grandson Omar.
Without a doubt, both candidates for the second district Congressional seat will be banking on their names. Garcia-Campos will hold on to the belief that the Garcia lawmakers who came before he decided to take a crack have done so much for the district in terms of laws with local application that led to the establishment of well-paved roads, rural electrification, more school building, barangay halls, corn-copra-rice driers, basketball courts, and others… All those may have made him assured of a win.
On the other hand, Omar, while he is showing accomplishments in Barangay Buhangin where he is the incumbent captain, definitely has nothing to present as projects in other second district villages. But for certain the young Duterte will ride on with what could be his grandfather former Mayor and immediate past President of the Philippines Rody Duterte’s projects put up in the same district. And if the fact that his grandfather is this time running again for mayor of the city, then Omar knows he will be carried in his grandpa’s campaign in the city’s second district. It is this advantage that is wanting in Garcia-Campos sojourn to the barangays when campaign season comes officially.
But then, the Garcias know this Omar Duterte’s advantage. Moreover, the Garcias are no neophytes in election campaigning. They surely have their aces too, that they might just have to use to counter Omar’s perceived pluses.
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Well now, the people who claim to be close relatives of the alleged victims of the Extras Judicial Killings (EJKs) during the Duterte administration’s “War on illegal drugs” are reported to have filed a disbarment case against the Davaoeno former President. Will they succeed? Our take on the move is that their success in getting a disbarment order from the Supreme Court is very unlikely.
Of course, the filing of the disbarment case against the former President will be received by the Highest Court. But its ruling could not come at this time when there are formal charges of crime against humanity being mulled at the Department of Justice and at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Supreme Court is not likely to preempt the Philippines’ Justice Department and the ICC. And even if its decision on the disbarment case is favorable to the former President it cannot afford to have a ruling that will jeopardize cases that may be brought against Duterte by the national government. At the same time, the Highest Court will not want to be the bar impeding the efforts of some Filipinos to have the former leader tried by the ICC on a similar case of crime against humanity.
Of course, it is our personal analysis of the possibilities of the disbarment case against the former leader. Anyone, from the laymen to the intellectuals, and most specifically the lawyers, will have an opinion of their own.
The Philippines is a free country.
