Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is still keeping his cards close to his chest even though he has already confirmed that he will be running for an elective post in the 2010 elections.

“I am running. Wait until November 30, but I am declaring that I am running,” Duterte said during his television program last Sunday.

He would not reveal what position he would be running for, however.

Duterte is serving his third and last term as mayor. He served his first three consecutive terms from 1988 to 1998, after which he ran for and won a seat in Congress.

He ran against and beat his former protégé Mayor Benjamin de Guzman in 2001, and then served two more consecutive terms.

Duterte could opt to run again for a seat in Congress or run for vice mayor as running mate of his daughter, Vice Mayor Sara Duterte, who will run for mayor.

At the same program. Duterte also lashed back at critics who have been picking on him for kissing women during his barangay sorties, saying he is merely reciprocating the “warm expression of love” the people show him.

He said this is in contrast to his rival who, he said, wash their hands with alcohol after shaking hands with the poor.

In his television program last Sunday, Duterte said his political rival – whom he did not name – does not kiss people because he is part of the elite.

He said this is the reason his rival lost the 1992 elections to him.

“How can my critics kiss their people when all they think about is washing with alcohol? They do not love their people. And now that people kiss me, they make an issue out of it? Kiss is an expression, do not question it,” Duterte said.

The issue was aired by former City Hall lawyer Elvira Sederiosa who, during a radio program of House Speaker Prospero Nograles’ son Karlo, said Duterte’s kissing during his sorties is a form of “soft prostitution.”

Sederiosa, who called herself a women’s rights advocate, also dared women’s group Gabriela Party-list to condemn Duterte, but Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan responded by saying the accusation on Duterte was a political gimmick.

“If she really intend to fight for women’s rights she should have not announced her protest in the program of Nograles,” Ilagan said.

Ilagan also advised Sederiosa: “Make your crusade real. Don’t be used by politicians, because there are lots of issues which need concern.” Editha Z. Caduaya