Stepping down as chairman of the Civil Service Commission, former Davao City Rep. Karlo Alexei Nograles is seeking to end the Duterte political stranglehold of the city by challenging former President Rodrigo Duterte’s mayoralty bid.

Nograles will be joined by his sister, PBA Partylist Rep. Margarita “Migs” Duterte will face off with re-electionist Rep. Paolo Duterte in the city’s First Congressional District.

The Nograleses and Dutertes are distant cousins but their families have challenges each other in various local political contests. The Dutertes always won in the past.

However, the Nograleses reportedly offer their constituents decency and transparency in governance.

Belonging to a clan of top legal minds in the country, Karlo and Margarita are also lawyers. The siblings are the children of the late Speaker Prospero Nograles who lost in a close mayoralty contest with former President Duterte in the early 2020’s.

A win by the Nograles siblings may signal the end to the reign of the Dutertes whose have been under close public scrutiny over the bloody drug war launched by the family patriarch during his reign as president.

Vice President Sara Duterte, daughter of the former president, has also been heavily criticized over questionable funding issues in the Office of the Vice President.

Karlo, 47, was a former member of the Duterte cabinet and served briefly as presidential spokesperson. He was also appointed as co-chairperson of the inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging infectious Diseases.

Before stepping down as chief executive in 2022, Duterte appointed Karlo chairman of the CSC.