MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte repeated his stand on Monday that he was against the possible presidential bid of his daughter, Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio, to spare her from the “vagaries” of politics — even hoping that his critics would win in the 2022 national elections so that they could see the difficulty of running the government.
Duterte made the remark during his taped weekly briefing on the COVID-19 situation in the Philippines as he took a jab at his critics — particularly detained Sen. Leila de Lima and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
“My stand is that I am against really the candidacy of my daughter. I want her spared from the vagaries of politics here in the Pilipinas, especially from the personalities — in the likes of Trillanes, si De Lima,” Duterte said, speaking partly in Filipino.
“All they do is attack their fellowmen. So I would rather give them the government. Let them win. I wish them luck and even wish them to win – if they can win – so that this government will be all their and they can do what they want,” he added.
Duterte said he would be hurt to see his daughter at the end of the “disrespectful” comments of critics.
“I will be hurt, of course, because she’s my child. This rude mouth of Trillanes — I don’t know where he got that trait. And even this De Lima. She is wallowing in pity, and as a consequence of that, she has become virulent almost,” the president said.
“I would rather that they would run and win. I’m praying for that so that they can see how it is to run the government,” he went on.
“How hard it is. Then, after all your efforts, there’s endless criticism because they can never be satisfied. They can no longer be appeased by anything except that they are hungry also for power… How I wish that they will run and they will win,” the President added.
Duterte said that his daughter could instead run for “some other time”, adding that it would not be good for a woman to be at the receiving end of brazen comments from critics.
“As a father, I would not want that to happen to my daughter,” Duterte said.
The Davao City mayor earlier expressed willingness to run for the country’s top post. She said, however, she had not made a final decision.