DAVAO CITY – The fight for mayoralty here heats up as two of the city’s political families go up against each other in vying for the city’s top position where Vice Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, daughter of incumbent Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, will face House Speaker Prospero Nograles, the mayor’s political rival, in seeking for the mayoralty seat in next year’s election.

Duterte filed her certificate of candidacy (CoC) on Monday, along with the CoC of her father, who will be her running mate as opposed to the former mayor, Ben de Guzman, who is under the Nograles ticket.

After filing her CoC, the vice mayor declared that running against Nograles is a new fight for her. “This is a new fight for me because this is the first time that I will go against Nograles,” she said. In the past, her father ran against the House Speaker in 1992 and won with a difference of 114,000 votes.

Duterte disclosed that her decision to run as mayor was a decision made since she won as vice mayor of the city in 2007. “My decision to run as mayor came the day I became vice mayor,” she said, owing to the fact that her father is on his last term as mayor of the city.

Meanwhile, despite his announcement a few months ago that he will not seek a local elective position in the coming 2010 elections, Nograles, who is in his last term as 1st district representative, suddenly changed course and decided to run for the mayoralty as he filed his CoC last Saturday afternoon.

In an interview with him in the previous months, he said that he will regret if he discontinue his being the House Speaker if he runs for a local seat.

“Why will I run for a local position? Sayang naman ang pagka-House Speaker ko. Hanggang June 30 pa ako eh,” he said.

However, prior to his filing, he said that his decision was brought about by the clamor for him to run as mayor of the city and offering an alternative type of governance.

“My mayoral candidacy is not about personal or political rivalry. It is about a new style of governance,” he said, adding that the city has been manned by one person since 1988.

He also added that his son, lawyer Karlo Nograles, who filed his CoC last Saturday, seeking the 1st congressional post, will continue what he has started in Congress.

However, the vice mayor disagreed to the speaker’s statement. “I don’t think he is the new leader he was talking about. He is belittling the city. The city is not small time. We and our families live here. This city is important and this is serious business,” she said.

She also disliked the venue where Nograles made his announcement to run, which was at Ferdinand “Batman” Lintuan’s house. Lintuan, a broadcaster, was slain on Christmas Eve of 2007.

Nograles dragged Mayor Duterte’s name into the slaying, saying, “I’m doing (this announcement) in Batman’s house to remind all of us of the lack of justice for those who have been slain mercilessly – like Ferdie “Batman” Lintuan – whose only fault was to disagree with City Hall and expose the corruption of public officials.”

“These allegations are only from him. There has never been an investigation involving the mayor and linking the mayor to the killing…He (Lintuan) is supposed to be resting peacefully,” she said.