DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio asked the Pulse Asia and other research organizations to have her name removed from the list of any surveys on the upcoming presidential elections 2022.
She made this statement after learning she topped the recent Pulse Asia yearend survey results on possible presidential 2022 candidates.
"I respectfully suggest to survey organizations to remove my name from the choices... Wala ta naghunahuna karon og eleksyon (We are not thinking of the elections these days)," she said in a Davao City Disaster Radio interview on Monday, January 4.
She emphasized that her focus remains on how to survive "the economic and humanitarian crisis still in front of us as we continue to battle the effects of Covid-19 on our people and our country."
The survey, conducted among 2,400 respondents from November 23 to December 2, 2020, showed 26 percent of adult Filipinos would support the lady mayor and the daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Mindanao gave Duterte-Carpio a whopping 58 percent, followed by Visayas (29 percent), Metro Manila (16 percent), and the rest of Luzon (12 percent).
She also topped it in all sectors with class ABC at 27 percent, D with 26 percent, and E at 23 percent.
Meanwhile, survey results also showed that tied for second place with 14 percent are former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Senator Grace Poe.
Marcos was the running mate of the late Miriam Defensor Santiago, who ran in the 2016 presidential elections. Poe also ran for the presidency in the same year.
Placing third is Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno, with 12 percent, followed by Senator Manny Pacquiao with 10 percent; Vice President Leni Robredo, eight percent; senators Ping Lacson and Christopher Go with four percent; former House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, three percent; Senator Richard Gordon, 0.2 percent; and former Chief Justice Antonio Carpio with 0.1 percent.
It can be recalled that President Rodrigo Duterte strongly discouraged his daughter from running for president.
"Kaya sabi ko sa anak ko, kay Inday, ano - sabi ko, 'Day, p***** i** 'wag mong pasukin 'yang trabaho na 'yan' (I told my daughter not to enter this job (president)," Duterte said in July 2020.
"Wala ka talagang makuha diyan, pagod lang (You will not get anything out of it, just stress)," he added.
In February 2019, Duterte-Carpio said she would make a decision on a possible bid for presidency by 2021.
Supporters claim that Duterte-Carpio organized the administration-backed regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago to lay the groundwork for her potential presidential bid.