A top official of the Lakas-CMD said the political party is open to having Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as its substitute standard bearer should she change her mind and decide to run for president in the 2022 synchronized elections.
But Lakas-CMD secretary-general and Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay insisted the candidates fielded by the party for the top two highest positions are not placeholders.
“We cannot call them that since they are qualified to run,” he said, referring to Anna Velasco and Lyle Uy, presidential and vice presidential bets, respectively, of Lakas.
In June, Lakas-CMD renewed its alliance with Duterte-Carpio’s regional party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago, and vowed to support her should she seek the presidency.
“She can always join Lakas. She can always be sworn in as a member of Lakas then substitute. But the decision is with her,” Pichay said.
Duterte-Carpio has repeatedly turned down appeals from her supporters for her to run for president. She filed her certificate of candidacy for a third and final term as Davao City mayor.
A faction of the PDP-Laban, led by its standard bearer Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, also said it is open to having the presidential daughter as its substitute bet.
Dela Rosa said he was more than willing to withdraw his COC should Duterte-Carpio decide to gun for the presidency under the PDP-Laban.
The Davao City mayor, however, has already rejected this scenario.
“Mayor Sara has no intention of becoming a member of PDP or of being its standard-bearer now or in the near future,” said Duterte-Carpio’s spokesperson, Liloan Cebu Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco.
Meanwhile, the possibility that Duterte-Carpio will join next year’s presidential race remains, according to a report by Fitch Solutions, a unit of Fitch Group.
“We believe there remains a strong prospect of Sara Duterte still running for president. The absence of Sara Duterte from the vice and presidential candidate lists was somewhat surprising given her strong showing in opinion polling through 2021 and Rodrigo’s potential need for an ally, given the threat from an International Criminal Court probe into his ‘war on drugs,” the report said.
“However, there remains a loophole in which Sara could still run, substituting for another candidate before the November 15 deadline, as Rodrigo did six years earlier. Sara has insisted that she intends to run for Davao city mayor, but the potential for her to mount a late bid for the presidency remains,” it said.