DAVAO CITY-Accompanied by a lone youth volunteer, Maria Victoria "Mags" Maglana snaked through a narrow, mud-caked pathway descending into a row of rickety shanties, which then stretches uphill under crisscrossing lines of laundry.

The path could be treacherous: a misstep could send her sliding toward the foliage on one side or sinking into the stank on the other. But Maglana, a longtime social development worker used to the trek, proceeded casually, knocking on doors and speaking with anyone who cared to listen.

Maglana, 54, is challenging President Rodrigo Duterte's political dynasty, running for Congress against his eldest son, Paolo "Pulong" Duterte, the city's incumbent first district representative.

The president's youngest son, incumbent Vice Mayor Sebastian "Baste" Duterte, is also facing a serious challenge for the mayoralty from lawyer Ruy Elias Lopez, a former congressman and a former political ally of the Dutertes.

Here in Sitio Bula, one of the seemingly forgotten communities in this largely progressive city, Maglana opted to spend her morning on April 19 meeting residents and offering her candidacy as an alternative.

Like Lopez, a veteran in the local political game who opted to unretire to take on the Dutertes, Maglana is facing a rather basic challenge in the campaign so far: many Davao voters don't even know that the Dutertes have challengers.

"Maraming hindi nakakaalam na they have options," she said, noting how she often had to mention that she's running against the incumbent Pulong.

It's a belief ingrained through 35 years of political dominance of the Dutertes in the city, beginning in 1987 when the family patriarch was appointed as vice mayor then first became mayor the following year. Duterte has since held a firm grip of local politics, keeping the mayoralty within the family except for 1998 to 2001 when he served as congressman.