Davao Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio said she is grateful to all her friends who believe in her and have relentlessly expressed their call for her to run for president.
“Run Sara Run” tarpaulins sprouted in Bacolod City Monday, March 1, and in other parts of Negros Occidental earlier.
The Davao mayor, in a recorded message Monday thanked her supporters but said there is no need to keep calling on her to run for president through motorcades and tarpaulins.
“I hear you, and I understand what’s in your heart because that is also what I feel,” she said.
She said even if she will not run for president, “in our show of strength and unity we are able to uplift many Filipino families in need”.
“Let us instead use our power and resources to give food to those who are short on money and hungry and create jobs for those who lost their livelihood,” she said.
Himamaylan, Negros Occidental Mayor Rogelio Raymund Tongson, who supports the call for Carpio to run for president, said the “Run” Sara Run” tarpaulins are being put up spontaneously by individuals who believe in her ability to lead the country.
There are other Negros Occidental mayors who share his stand, Tongson said but did not name them.
Meanwhile, Commissioner Rowena Guanzon of the Commission on Elections, said today, March 2, that the “Run Sara Run” tarpaulins are not violating any Comelec rules because Carpio is not a candidate yet and therefore not covered by campaign rules.
Carpio is also not the one who put up those posters, Guanzon said.*