Duterte vs Duterte likely in Philippines VP race

MANILA: Will President Rodrigo Duterte join the vice presidential race where his daughter Sara, the mayor of their hometown of Davao City in Mindanao, is already one of the declared seven candidates?

The answer to this question will be known on Monday, Nov.15, the deadline set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the substitution of candidates running for local and national positions in the coming May 2022 elections barely seven months away.

In turn, this question was raised when Duterte showed up before the Comelec national office in Manila on Saturday and announced he would be the running mate of his close ally freshman Senator Christopher “Bong” Go who filed his certificate of candidacy for president.

Some of his supporters like Martin Andanar, the presidential communications secretary, told reporters that Duterte was serious despite an earlier announcement that daughter Sara had filed her candidacy to replace the vice presidential candidate of the once-dominant Lakas-cmd (Christian Muslim Democrats) of former president Gloria Macapagal-arroyo. Andanar said Duterte would return to the Comelec on Monday to file his candidacy for vice president.

“Let’s wait for the next chapter,” was Andanar’s cryptic reply to a question from reporters.

Observers said this was the second time and Duterte said he would join the vice presidential race in when his fixed six-year term as the country’s president is to expire in June 2022.

He had accepted the offer of leaders of a faction of the ruling Pdp-laban political party which passed resolution endorsing him to run for that position. But the president later changed his mind, saying he would retire from politics. Nevertheless, party leaders said they would encourage Duterte to run for senator.

And before he could respond, Duterte on Saturday said he decided to run for vice president with Go, his long-time assistant since he served as the Davao City mayor for more than 20 years.

On the other hand, Sara’s venture into the vice presidential race started less than a week ago when she announced she had withdrawn from her bid for reelection mayor of Davao City.

She followed this up with another announcement she had resigned from the “Hugpong ng Pagbabago” (HNP or Movement for Change), a regional political party she had help set up in Mindanao.

In yet another announcement, Sara reported that she took her oath as a member of the LakasCMD. She had hardly warmed her seat as a new member when she filed her candidacy for vice president of Lakas-cmd before the Comelec on Saturday, through her official representative.