Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, the daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, will run for vice president in the 2022 elections, the government’s election monitor said Saturday, after months of speculation she would seek the top job.
The Commission on Elections announced on its official Facebook page that Sara would be running for the country’s second-highest office, replacing another candidate.
“This is to confirm that Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, through her representative, has filed her Certificate of Candidacy for Vice President under Lakas-CMD (party),” her spokeswoman Christina Garcia Frasco said on Facebook.
Her decision came just before the November 15 deadline for candidates to make a late entry into the May 9 elections.
She was immediately endorsed by the party of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be his running mate in the poll.
new…The Partido Federal ng Pilipinas on Saturday said it had adopted Duterte-Carpio as its vice presidential candidate and endorsed her as the running mate of its standard-bearer “Bongbong” Marcos.
The Executive Committee of the PFP adopted a resolution following Duterte-Carpio’s filing with the Comelec of her certificate of candidacy (CoC) for vice president.
House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said her filing makes her the official candidate of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats for the second highest office.
“It’s final. Mayor Sara Duterte is now the official candidate of the Lakas-CMD for Vice President in the 2022 national election,” Romualdez, representative of Leyte’s first district and president of Lakas-CMD, said in a statement.
Romualdez said Lakas-CMD will work hard to ensure her victory as the country’s next VP.
“We are honored that Mayor Sara accepted the challenge to help lead the party at a crucial time when the nation desperately needs a steady leader who can inspire us all to bounce back from the ravages of the pandemic,” said the lawyer from the University of the Philippines and president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa).
“We — her partymates in the Senate, House of Representatives, Provincial Governments, City Governments and Municipal Governments— are all committed to work double time to ensure Mayor Sara’s victory as the country’s next Vice President,” Romualdez added.
Sara had been widely expected to run for president in a bid to succeed her father, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a second six-year term and is facing an investigation by the International Criminal Court into his deadly drug war.
For months, she had insisted she wanted to serve another term as Davao City mayor, the family’s southern bailiwick, despite consistently leading in surveys of voter preferences for the next president.
Speculation about her plans intensified this week after she suddenly withdrew from the mayoral contest, quit her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago, and joined Lakas-CMD, the national political party of her close ally and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“I thank my supporters. I hope whatever happens in the next few days, I will be able to give them what they want,” she told reporters Thursday on the sidelines of a wedding.
Sara’s decision to run for vice president leaves Marcos Jr. in a strong position for the presidency. He has been in the second spot –behind Duterte-Carpio — in voter surveys, ahead of celebrity mayor Francisco Domagoso, boxing great Manny Pacquiao, and incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo.
There was speculation Sara had sought to persuade Marcos Jr. to slide back into the vice presidential race and create a formidable alliance between the two clans. In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected separately.
The Marcos family stronghold stretches across the country’s north and centre, while the Dutertes enjoy widespread support in the south.
But Marcos Jr., who was at the same wedding on Thursday and was seen walking arm-in-arm with Sara, told reporters: “I will continue with my plan. I entered this race to run for president.”
“Duterte running for the vice presidency… more or less seals Bongbong Marcos’ position as the top contender, the candidate to beat in these elections,” political analyst Richard Heydarian told AFP.
The Partido Federal ng Pilipinas resolution also stated the party did not issue Certificates of Nomination and Acceptance (CONA) and had no official candidates for Vice President and Senators for the upcoming polls.
It also added that party chair and standard-bearer Marcos Jr. was given “full power and authority” to choose his vice presidential running mate and a senatorial line-up.
Marcos, advocating for a unifying leadership brand, has remained humble amid malicious moves to derail his candidacy for the 2022 polls, his party said. with AFP