As President thinks about stepping down, his daughter reaches out to a Marcos
President Duterte thinks political dynasties are bad. But the way the prevailing political winds are blowing, it looks like a dynasty of his own might be taking shape.
Nine months away from midterm elections that could determine the success or failure of his presidency, his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, is fast emerging as a power broker who is aiming to shore up support for his ambitious policy agenda and, according to some experts and insiders, his eventual succession.
By his own admission, the 73-year-old President is flagging. On Tuesday, he lamented his uphill struggle to tackle illicit drugs and cut government corruption, predicting that he’ll “hardly make a dent” in his remaining four years in office.
During a ceremony and again at a dinner afterward, Mr. Duterte said he was tired, exasperated and thinking about quitting, and ended his somber speech with: “I’m telling you, I’m ready to step down and retire.”
That contrasts sharply from his 40-year-old daughter, who has started maneuvering to build alliances and expand her small party in the southern Davao region into a new political juggernaut, as fissures ap- pear in her father’s ruling PDP-Laban party.
Uniting political factions
Sara Duterte was instrumental in bringing together political factions to stage a dramatic July 23 ousting of divisive Duterte ally, Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez as Speaker of the House of Representatives, replacing him with Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 71, a former President with clout and connections to ensure support for Mr. Duterte and his agenda.
The move was helped by a relationship developing between Sara Duterte and Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, 62, a key figure in the still influential family of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for two decades before being ousted in the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution.
The two women posed together for pictures last week, each with one hand doing Mr. Duterte’s trademark fist gesture, and with the other hand making a “V” sign synonymous with Marcos’ rule.
Mr. Duterte’s rise has been a boon for the Marcos family. Imee frequently attends his official events and in 2016, Mr. Duterte granted her longstanding wish for her father to be buried with military honors at Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Mr. Duterte also said last week that should he step down, he wanted the likes of Imee’s brother, former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., to be his successor.
Marcos Jr. came a close second to Leni Robredo, a rival of Mr. Duterte, in the 2016 vice presidential election, but he has challenged the result in the Supreme Court.
Richard Heydarian, an author, columnist and academic specializing in politics, said the Marcos family wanted to stay relevant nationally.
And in a political culture where loyalties easily shift, Sara Duterte was now widely seen as a figure worth rallying behind, he pointed out.
‘New center of gravity’
“People around ( President) Duterte are looking for a new center of gravity. They see signs of an exhausted President and see there could be some kind of succession that can protect their interests,” Heydarian said.
“He has a very shallow network of politicians, he’s not at his peak. He just has to hold on as long as he can,” he added.
Mr. Duterte himself acknowl- edged the observation. But he said on Tuesday he couldn’t resign because a constitutional succession would mean handing power to Vice President Robredo.
According to him, Robredo isn’t up to the job—which she rebutted—and he would prefer a junta takeover.
Reluctant successor
The President’s relationship with his daughter, however, has often appeared rocky, and she has portrayed herself as his reluctant successor as mayor of Davao City.
Like her father, she is feared and respected, and known for being blunt, unpredictable and for openly trading barbs with the President.
Despite that, few doubt her loyalty to him. Although she denies being interested, she and other Duterte allies, including his spokesperson, his special assistant and his former Philippine National Police chief, are tipped to vie for 12 Senate seats in 2019, as is Imee Marcos.
That could be a gamechanger for the President, who has built a strong majority in the House of Representatives but needs control of the Senate to deliver on his promises.
Among a raft of plans, he wants to redraft the Constitution and deliver his centerpiece economic policy, a multitrillion-peso infrastructure spree designed to modernize the country, spur spending, create jobs and lure investment.
Control of Senate
“Now is the chance to further consolidate power by controlling both houses of Congress and the local government units so all of us can we move forward in cadence,” said a member of a nine-party alliance formed by Sara Duterte last week.
“The goal is, fill the Senate with people who can help ... We don’t want people who will only obstruct his plans,” said the politician who requested anonymity because “only Sara Duterte could speak about the alliance.”
Even so, opposition Rep. Antonio Tinio is skeptical about Mr. Duterte’s talk of retirement and is among many opponents who suspect he’ll try to continue beyond his permitted single six-year term—an idea that Duterte has dismissed as idiotic.
Plan B, Tinio said, is his daughter succeeding him.
“If efforts to extend the term of President Duterte through Charter change fail, it’s very likely that the Dutertes’ Davao formula for dynastic succession will prevail,” he said.