Manila: Support for a presidential bid for Davao City’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte, is gaining ground even as the prospective candidate himself is yet to commit to the idea.
“Yes, talks are on going, but nothing is final at this time,” a source from Cebu City told Gulf News when asked to confirm reports that negotiations are going on between Duterte’s camp and that of the Nacionalista Party (NP) of former Senator Manuel Villar and the Partido Demokratiko-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III.
Duterte currently belongs to the PDP-Laban.
With their formidable machineries, the two parties together form the biggest political organisations in the country.
It was responsible for the near-win of Villar in the 2010 presidential contest. Villar tallied only second in the electoral contest, losing to current President Benigno Aquino III.
The source confided to Gulf News that NP is courting the support of Duterte as part of a political concession to Villar, whose wife, Senator Cynthia Villar is reportedly seeking the vice-presidency in the 2016 polls.
Merger
Reports said an official announcement of a merger of the PDP-Laban-Nacionalista Party is due soon.
So far, Duterte remains non-committed although there are widespread calls for him to run for the top executive office.
A no-nonsense lawyer and administrator, Duterte had been elected mayor of the country’s biggest city — Davao City, time and again despite his image as a leader who would cut short tedious judicial processes by rendering justice swiftly and without fanfare.
In 2012, he forced a man selling fake land titles to eat the counterfeit certificates the latter had been selling to hapless informal settlers.
He would, at a heartbeat, tell rice smugglers that he would have them shot to death if they continue with their nefarious ways.
But the source said, all of this is part of an image Duterte cultivated and happily basked in.
Death squads
“They say he had people executed through the so-called Davao Death Squads but up to now, no one has any proof that he was behind these killings,” said the source.
“For one thing, Mayor Duterte epitomises everything that the government should be — quick to act on concerns even outside the media glare. The people are fed up with slow moving politicians,” he said.
“If only he will run for president then things would appear a little better for a lot of people,” he added.
