THE Hugpong para kay Sara (HPS) citizens’ movement is still hopeful Mayor Sara Duterte will change her decision to run for presidency in the coming national elections instead of running for third and final term as Davao City mayor.

Mayor Sara filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for reelection as Davao City mayor yesterday morning while President Rodrigo Duterte announced he is retiring from politics “in obedience to the will of the people, who placed him in the presidency many years ago.”

The president and Mayor Sara had agreed that only one Duterte should run for the national post in the 2022 elections.

Now that President Duterte has given up plans of running for vice president, it paves the way for Mayor Sara to seek the highest post of the land.

Mayor Sara continues to lead the latest Pulse Asia Survey for the preferred presidential candidates for the May 2022 national elections.

The survey conducted from Sept 6 to 11 showed that 20% of the respondents prefer Mayor Sara Duterte as their first choice to be their presidential candidate, followed by BongBong Marcos with 15% and Isko Moreno with 13%.

“The result of the latest survey shows that the majority of the Filipino people still prefer Mayor Sara to be the next president for the next six years despite her reluctance to seek the presidency,” said House Deputy Speaker and HPS spokesperson Bernadette Herrera.

In two non-commissioned polls conducted from July to August, both Pulse Asia and the OCTA Research Group, in their 2022 national elections survey, indicated that the Davao City Mayor remains the most preferred candidate, with 28 percent of the respondents voting for her if elections were held on the day they were interviewed.

Herrera said the recent Pulse Asia survey result sits well with the main objective of HPS to urge Mayor Sara Duterte to seek the highest post of the land in the next national elections.

Since last month, the number of HPS supporters and chapters nationwide and overseas continues to swell. More than 20,000 HPS members had pledged their loyalty to persuade Mayor Duterte to throw her hat into the presidential derby in 2022.

Mayor Sara said on her official Facebook page that she is ‘honored for the trust and respect of Filipinos, many of whom she has not met’, adding that she shared the Filipinos’ goal of living a peaceful and prosperous life in our country.’

“I call on everyone to work together for an honest, orderly, and credible election in May 2022,” she added.

Herrera said: “Mayor Sara’s reluctance to run means she has discernment – a process that includes silence, good counsel and the ability to listen to the voice of the people. This shows she is not a political opportunist.”

“She has consistently shown a gentle heart for her constituents, especially the common folk, and that to many Filipinos, is priceless. A style of governance couched by a strong political will and a thoughtful mind, which many of our citizens believe is what the country needs,” she said.

HPS, which was launched early this month, is a citizen’s movement composed of various people-based organizations, local government leaders and business groups that gather research and data which could help Mayor Duterte decide whether to run for the top post in the land in 2022 or not.