Duterte confirms he’ll run for vice president next year
MANILA — Tough-talking Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed rumblings that he will run next year for vice president, in what critics say is an attempt at an endrun around constitutional term limits.
Duterte, who is notorious for his vulgar rhetoric and crackdown on illegal drugs, which has killed thousands of mostly petty suspects, said in comments broadcast Wednesday that he will run for vice president to “continue the crusade.”
“I will run for vice president,” he said. “I’m worried about the drugs, insurgency. Well, number one is insurgency, then criminality, drugs.”
The Philippines has been struggling through the COVID-19 pandemic, with rising infections and death rates and a slow vaccination rollout, but Duterte’s popularity ratings have remained high.
Polls suggest that running Duterte in tandem with his daughter, Sara Duterte, currently the mayor of Davao City, as the presidential candidate would be a strong pairing, said Manila-based political analyst Richard Heydarian.
The idea of the two running together has been discussed since 2019, he said, though Duterte advisers have reportedly said that he has suggested he might not run for vice president if his daughter decides to announce a bid for president.
“The campaign for Sara Duterte has more or less kicked off, it seems, almost irrespective of what Duterte’s position will be,” Heydarian said. “A Duterte/ Duterte tandem is increasingly looking like the formidable team to beat in the next year’s elections.”
Further muddying the waters, however, Sara Duterte posted on Facebook later Wednesday that her father had told her he would run for vice president with his former aide, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go running for president. She did not address her own aspirations, but said her father and Go should announce publicly that they would run together if they have made that decision.
“I respectfully advise them to stop talking about me and make me the reason for them running or not running,” she wrote.
Philippine presidents are limited by the 1987 Constitution to a single six-year term. At least two former presidents, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, have made successful runs for lower public offices after serving as president, but not for vice president.