‘Run, Sara, Run’: Is Duterte’s daughter playing her father’s game?
The daughter of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte says there’s no chance she’ll run for the presidency next year. Her father says the presidency is no job for a woman.
But few are convinced by either of them as campaigns grow to back Sara Duterte-carpio, 42, to succeed the autocratic and capricious president whose war on drugs killed thousands and whose embrace of China has convulsed historic ties with Washington.
“It is the clamour of the people that will make her run,” said Mar Masanguid, who led the movement behind the popular 76-year-old Duterte’s last minute presidential bid in 2016 and has now founded a group to back Sara
Duterte. Sara Duterte’s image is as down-to-earth as that of her father in a country where tough plays well: she once punched a court official who challenged her; she rides big motorbikes; her children are nicknamed Sharkie, Stingray and Stonefish.
Opinion polls show her far ahead of other potential candi
dates for the 2022 election when Duterte must step down after one six-year term. But Sara Duterte said she had thought carefully and decided not to try to extend the political dynasty to the presidency after succeeding her father as mayor of the southern city of Davao.
“I made a chart where I listed the whys and why nots before I decided that I am not going to run,” she said, adding that she hadn’t even told her father the reason. That hasn’t stopped the campaigns. Posters, banners, stickers, t-shirts, calendars bearing the younger Duterte’s image with the words “Run, Sara, Run” have popped up across the archipelago of 108 millio people. Her supporters say she has nothing to do with the campaigns. “Run, Sara, Run” calls have increased among the millions of Filipinos abroad, a key support base of Duterte.
Sara Duterte, like her father, has a reputation for being tough. She has openly traded barbs with the president, but few doubt her loyalty. —