DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is set to deliver her "valedictory speech" during her last State of the City Address (Soca) this December 20.
Duterte-Carpio announced the final date of her Soca, which had been delayed for nearly two months, during her regular radio interview on Monday, December 13, adding that it will still be done virtually but her speech will be delivered live from 1 to 3 p.m.
Duterte-Carpio said the Soca will be held at the Sangguniang Panlungsod Plenary Hall wherein no audience will be allowed to witness her delivering her speech inside.
This will be her final Soca as she is running for the vice presidency in the 2022 elections.
Duterte-Carpio said she will highlight anew the top 10 development priorities of the city: education, health, poverty alleviation and different services, infrastructure development, solid waste management and environment, agriculture, investments and tourism, transportation planning and traffic management, disaster risk reduction, and peace and order.
But she said her speech will be slightly lengthier, as this would include her accomplishments since she assumed her term as mayor in 2016 until present.
"Ang Soca sa pagkakaron, ang first draft nila (Our Soca this year, their first draft) is already at 54 pages. It will be a recap of 2016 to 2021 December," the mayor said.
She said she would include in her speech her “valedictory speech” or her “goodbye speech” to her constituents.
The mayor was supposed to run for reelection on her third and final term, but she had heeded the call of her supporters to run for the national position.
Her brother, incumbent Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte, is substituting her in the mayoral race.
In previous years, the annual Soca is slated in October.
Duterte-Carpio said in a previous interview that the Soca was delayed after she tested positive for Covid-19. She also said that she intentionally wanted to do it after November 15, the last day of the withdrawal and substitution of candidacy.
Last year’s Soca was pre-recorded and was live streamed via the City Government of Davao Facebook page. This was made due to the Covid-19 pandemic.