Former Civil Service Commission chairperson Karlo Nograles admitted that his bid for the mayoral post in Davao City did not have the blessing of former President Rodrigo Duterte, his ex-boss who has unexpectedly become his biggest rival in the race.

In an interview on Wednesday, Nograles, a three-term congressman who served as Cabinet secretary during the Duterte administration, said he only had a few encounters with the erstwhile president after his term ended in June 2022, which precluded any discussion on his run for mayor.

Nograles, however, said he was optimistic “he would respect my decision.”

Nograles resigned as CSC chief on Monday but remained mum about his political plans until Tuesday, the last day for filing of candidacies for next year’s election, when he filed his candidacy papers.

He tendered his resignation hours after Duterte formalized his own intention to retake his old post as Davao City mayor, which he had held for decades.

Nograles’s bid revived the long and bitter Duterte-Nograles family rivalry dating back to 1992, when Nograles’s father, the late Speaker Prospero Nograles, attempted to unseat Duterte in that election.

The first loss of the senior Nograles was followed by a series of poll defeats against Duterte.

The decades-old feud between the Nograleses and Dutertes came to an end in 2015, when the former endorsed Rodrigo Duterte for president in 2016 presidential.

After the reconciliation, Duterte appointed the younger Nograles to various posts.

Since then, Karlo Nograles and Duterte had maintained friendly ties, until last Tuesday.

“It’s going to be new, really new. It’s a different person, it’s a different candidate, it’s a different name, it’s a different guy,” Nograles said in the interview.

His platform includes the digitalization of city and business permit issuance, digital ID cards for swift service delivery, and more benefits for senior citizens of Davao.

“Some cities are giving more benefits to senior citizens other than a cake every birthday. They also give over and above what the DSWD gives. They are give free medical checkups, free laboratories, free everything that can be given to senior citizens,” he said.

“It’s not that Davao doesn’t have the money for it. It does. And I don’t understand why we cannot maximize all of these for the benefit of our people,” Nograles said.

The mayoral hopeful is at a loss as to why Davao is lagging behind its neighbors, especially given that it has “the means, the capacity, and the funds to do all those things — and even better.”

In addition, Nograles said he would maximize the special education funds to build more classrooms and fix the unresolved flooding problem that has plagued the city all these years.