FILE PHOTO: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte arrives with daughter and first lady Sara Duterte-Carpio to attend the enthronement ceremony of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito in Tokyo, Japan October 22, 2019. Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
MANILA, Philippines — If President Rodrigo Duterte seeks the vice presidency in 2022, he will be backed by the fractured Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), but that support may not extend to his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, according to a top party official.
“Although no one has announced a plan to run, if PDP-Laban fields a candidate, the standard-bearer should belong to PDP-Laban,” Ronwald Munsayac, the ruling party’s interim executive director who is allied with the PDP-Laban acting president, Sen. Manny Pacquiao, said on Tuesday.
“Our advice to our members is: If we have a strong candidate from our party, why should we support a candidate from outside the party?” Munsayac told reporters in an online interview in response to questions about the possibility of a “Duterte-Duterte” tandem in the 2022 presidential election.
Sara Duterte heads the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago but is influential among many PDP-Laban members, including her friend, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, and associates of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Duterte is not averse to the idea of running for vice president, his spokesperson Harry Roque said on Tuesday.
“To all those asking what is the President’s response, the answer is: He will think about it. Of course, he has been nominated, he has to think about this,” Roque said at a press briefing.
But Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said PDP-Laban was merely devising an “escape plan” for Duterte when his term ends in June 2022.
Gaite said Duterte would have to stay in power in order to escape accountability for his “crimes against the Filipino people.”
Birthday girl
On Monday, a faction of PDP-Laban held a national meeting in Cebu City and passed a resolution urging the President to run for vice president next year. The meeting coincided with celebrations for Sara Duterte’s 43rd birthday and appeared to have been a well-funded push by her supporters to boost her electoral prospects.
The faction led by Energy Secretary and PDP-Laban vice chair Alfonso Cusi had defied a warning by Pacquiao that the meeting was not allowed under party bylaws.
The boxing champ is widely rumored as planning a presidential run himself.
Another possible candidate is Mr. Duterte’s longtime aide, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, a PDP-Laban member who is also allied with Sara Duterte’s Hugpong, having been endorsed by it during the 2019 elections.
Munsayac said the prospect of the President running for vice president should get the backing of a large majority in the party.
“If hypothetically, Duterte decides to run, that will be thrown to the body, the national assembly… [But] it’s safe to say that if [he] decides to run, he has the support of PDP-Laban,” Munsayac said.
Munsayac dismissed speculations that Pacquiao was on the way out of PDP-Laban for presenting an obstacle to either Duterte’s daughter or his aide becoming the party’s standard-bearer in 2022,
“Yesterday (Monday), we didn’t see any sign of that. Senator Pacquiao still enjoys the very strong support of the general membership,” Munsayac said, adding that the senator had no intention at this time to break away from PDP-Laban and to form his own party.
“Based on our conversation, that is very far from happening,” Munsayac said. “He has come to love PDP-Laban, so this is not on his mind. We’re very optimistic, very confident, that this misunderstanding will be resolved once he meets with the party chair [Duterte].”
But “in politics, anything is possible,” Munsayac conceded. “We are ready to face any scenario.”
Accountability
Duterte has yet to make a categorical statement on his plans for 2022, but Gaite said the man would eventually run for vice president.
The PDP-Laban resolution is “definitely a way for [him] to elude accountability for all his misdeeds, for all his crimes against the Filipino people. It’s an escape plan,” Gaite said in a statement.
“He knows the people would seek justice and accountability for the extrajudicial killings, attacks on press freedom, attacks against government critics, the botched handling of the pandemic, and all of his other misdeeds, so he must cling to power as long as he can so that he can escape the sword of justice,” the lawmaker said.
According to House Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, “a vice president is not immune from suit.’’
“Remember VP (Jejomar) Binay was sued for alleged graft,’’ Zarate, a lawyer, said in a text message.
He said that under international law, “only the president and members of the diplomatic corps are immune from suit.’’
Roque said that in making his decision, Mr. Duterte would consider what would benefit the country.
“On the one hand, he said he has already served the country. On the other hand, he said he would think about what is best for the country. That is the answer of the president,” Roque said.
Starting a joke
On the opposition coalition 1Sambayan saying that a run for vice president for Duterte would be a “joke of the worst kind,” Roque said: “All I can say is, the joke may be on them.”
He had earlier said Duterte would leave the decision to God.
On reports that Pacquiao was seeking a meeting with Mr. Duterte, Roque said this was not yet on the president’s schedule but that he saw no reason why this would not take place.
He said he believed that Pacquiao remained an ally of the president.
Roque also said Pacquiao was still PDP-Laban president even if the national meeting pushed through despite his objection.