Inday Sara is in the building

Folks wearing green shirts with “Inday Sara” in thick white letters printed on the back can still be seen in the SP building. “Inday” is a nickname or endearment that plays on her seemingly retiring manner though she made it clear during her inauguration that she was not shy to talk tough.

“I abhor stupidity and mediocre work,” she said in her inaugural speech. “So I respectfully request you to toe the line. Let us not forget that we do not serve at our own pleasure and at our own time.”

In fact, barely five months since the elections, Inday Sara seems to have hit the ground running. As presiding officer of the city council, she shepherds the city’s legislative agenda so Davao can establish a city college, to be called “Davao City Technical College”; turn the city into an Information Technology hub, ala Silicon Valley; improve health services; pass a tourism code to regulate and coordinate the city’s tourism efforts; and establish a Davao City Sports Commission, to converge all sports group with the city government (“January dapat tapos na ‘to.”).

She also looks after projects like City Hall’s “Name this Park Contest.” The new four-hectare park is just across the Apo View Hotel and Casa Leticia in the heart of downtown. The park features a miniature rain forest, a children’s playground, a jogging trail, a picnic area, a man-made lagoon, a Durian Dome Visitors’ Center and the giant sculptures of Davao artist Kublai Millan. The new name will be announced in December and come with a P50,000 prize money.

A curious project of Inday Sara addresses those travel advisories issued by the U.S. government. When trouble occurs somewhere in Mindanao or Sulu, the U.S. government immediately issues a warning to U.S. citizens to stay away from hot spots. A wrong generalization, harmful to Davao City, she believes.

“One businessman from the U.S. asked me to ask the U.S. government to edit travel advisories,” she relates. “At first I was hesitant – it’s a national government-to-government thing, and we are local. But I relented and asked one councilor to file a resolution requesting them (the U.S. government) to specifically say na ‘Mindanao except Davao City’ in their advisories.”

The city council passed the resolution and the Davao City Chamber of Commerce plans to pass a similar resolution. A city envoy will then present both resolutions to U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney. “Parang suntok lang sa buwan,” surmises Inday Sara with a smile.

Fear, Father, Future

While many things have been said about her father, the mayor, Sara says she especially likes his “sarcastic sense of humor.”

During his single term stint as congressman, her dad spent a lot of time at the eat-all-you-can canteen at the House of Representatives in Manila. He also didn’t like to talk to other congressmen while he was in the session hall.

One reporter asked him, “Sir, this is your first term as congressman, what are your committees?”
“I’m a member of the board,” Duterte replied.

“But sir, it’s committees here in Congress What board are you a member of?”

“Bored people.”

Gigie Agtay, the news editor of the newspaper, Sun Star Davao, observes, “Si Mayor sobrang quotable. Anything he says you can quote.”

“Malutong magmura,” Sara says of her public dad.

But what of talk that people are afraid of him?

“Since umiikot na ko sa mga barangays, they are actually afraid na ‘pag wala na siya what will happen?” she ripostes.

Duterte’s third and final term as mayor ends in 2010. As editor Agtay put it: “Ang problema, wala siyang successor…pa.”

As for Duterte himself, he has rejected Sara’s suggestions to run for a national position.

Which is not the case with his ambitious daughter. In addition to seeing herself married and with three children in the next five years (she is engaged to a lawyer), she blurts out her political plans.

“Actually, sa totoo lang, gusto ko talaga maging presidente ng Pilipinas,” she admits, dropping her voice as though someone may overhear her confession. “Kaya lang I’m only 29. Di ba dapat at least 40? Ang tagal pa noon!” She giggles.

“Kailangan, I have to be in public eye para ibenta ko yung sarili ko. Nakakapagod yata yon.” She starts to laugh out loud.

Whether she is serious or not, the neophyte politician appears to be in intense training this early. On an average day, she is at the SP building from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and sometimes attends three events a day. She can only keep up with her idols Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, and Angelina Jolie by watching DVDs at home. Who would have thought the shy, homesick girl who would rather take the long commute from her school in Dasmariñas, Cavite to sleep in their house in San Juan an hour-and-a-half away would plunge into a frenetic life and looking forward to an even more frenetic future.

Then she drops her not-so-secret smart bomb. “Hindi ko pa alam sagutin kung ano ang mangyayari sa 2010 (when her father’s final term as mayor ends). Pero kung gusto ko mag-presidente in 10 years, dapat yata mag-mayor na ko.”

It’s always the shy ones who spring the biggest surprise.