Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Running for vice president is a “non-option” for Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, who would have filed her candidacy for president last month were it not for some “roadblocks,” according to a congressman who said he knew this from his long talks with President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter.
In a press conference on Wednesday, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, said Duterte, who is fondly called “Inday Sara” by her supporters, wanted to run for president as early as May this year.
“And vice president is definitely not an option for her,” said the House ways and means panel chair. “It was made very clear to me that she’s running for president. That’s ages ago … You don’t underestimate this girl, I’m telling you.”
Salceda declined to say what the “stumbling blocks” or “hurdles” were, but he hinted that they were related to the President’s own plans.
He said that Duterte “had her way” of clearing the obstacles.
“There was everything thrown at her from the side of her father, I just don’t want to talk about it, because the father had his own optics with respect to 2022. But she yielded not a single inch. She has that enlightened stubbornness to a goal, unyielding firmness to purpose,” Salceda said.
On Tuesday, Duterte withdrew her certificate of candidacy (COC) for a third term as mayor and was substituted by her brother, Sebastian Duterte, who had earlier also withdrawn his candidacy for vice mayor. A councilor and ally took his spot in the race.
When she announced her withdrawal, many of her supporters expected she would run either for president or vice president.
That scenario was further highlighted after Sen. Bong Go, the President’s longtime aide, said there might be “changes” in his candidacy as the vice presidential bet of a faction of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) chaired by the President.
But Salceda said: “I think VP is a non-option for Sara.”
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, president of the PDP-Laban faction conceded that Duterte’s “actions, including any decision to run for a national elective office, will most certainly affect the political landscape” and that the party was watching developments “with keen interest.”
Sen. Manny Pacquiao, a leader of the rival faction, requested for a meeting with the President and the two held talks on Tuesday for “a renewal of friendship,” according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.
Roque said “there was no talk of politics.”
“More importantly, it was a meeting between two national leaders from Mindanao, who discussed certain matters related to people’s concern in their area, specifically in the infrastructure and power industry,” he said.
Pacquiao, who was ousted as PDP-Laban president by the Cusi faction, is running for president in the 2022 polls under the Promdi party.
The PDP-Laban’s reluctant presidential candidate is Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who has been open about his intention to give way to Duterte.
No effect, says Leni
Vice President Leni Robredo, the standard-bearer of the opposition to a continuation of the President’s administration and the return of the Marcoses to Malacañang through former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., remains unfazed by Mr. Duterte’s daughter’s plans for 2022.
“We already knew there was a huge possibility” that she would eventually run for president, Robredo said at a press conference in Batangas.
But Duterte’s move “does not affect (my) own bid for the presidency,” she said.
‘Taken for a ride’
“If anything, this would only further sharpen the lines between who really are against one another,” Robredo said.
Reacting to Duterte’s move, another presidential aspirant, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso of Aksyon Demokratiko, said Filipino voters would see through efforts by politicians to stir up drama over their candidacies.
“Let the people make the decision because the people are aware that their lives are being taken for a ride on a merry-go-round (by politicians),” he said.
Domagoso had earlier called the substitution of candidates a tactic that makes “a mockery of the system.”
Salceda, an economist, said he had “kilometric” chats with Duterte to whom he had provided “so many data analytics about her prospects,” whether in a Duterte-Marcos or a Marcos-Duterte ticket.
In one memorandum to the mayor, Salceda concluded that “a Duterte-Marcos tandem would have a stronger chance of having both candidates win” and that the tandem would have a “bigger core, a bigger neighborhood of non-core areas that can be appealed to.”
An hour before she withdrew her COC on Tuesday, Salceda said he messaged her to ask if she would be running for president.
May join Lakas
“I told her, you are the one I want as president. I would die if you will not run. That’s in jest because it was between friends. She said, ‘You will not die, just hold my hand. Just focus on me,’” he said.
Since the PDP-Laban has been split by infighting, Duterte is likely to join the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats party headed by House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, a cousin of Marcos, Salceda said.
He said the President’s eldest daughter was likely to make her move before the Nov. 15 deadline for the substitution of candidates as she was “no last-minute filer.”
A Commission on Elections (Comelec) official reminded candidates that substitutes must belong to the same party as the one withdrawing.
The substitute must present a certificate of nomination from the party of the candidate being replaced and proof of membership in the same party, according to Comelec Education and Information Department Director Elaiza Sabile-David.