Mayor Sara Duterte —Davao City Information Office
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the vice presidential running mate of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., remains hopeful that her father would endorse the son and namesake of the deposed dictator for the May 9 elections.
In an interview with reporters in Sta. Maria, Bulacan, on Thursday, Duterte said she was looking forward to personally speak with her father about this during upcoming family affairs.
“I have not talked to President Duterte but in time, I expect that we will see each other, if not after the campaign, maybe during the campaign because there will be family birthdays in March and April. So, we might see each other during these events,” she said.
Mr. Duterte will celebrate his 77th birthday on March 28.
The mayor is running as the vice presidential candidate of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats party while Marcos is the standard-bearer of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas. Together, they call themselves the UniTeam.
The pair is leading their rivals in recent surveys.
Respecting his decision
Asked if she would seek an endorsement of Marcos from the President, she said: “Well of course, that is what all of us wanted to see—the support of President Duterte for UniTeam.”
As President, she said her father “is allowed to do and say what he wants.”
“And we will respect his decision,” she added.
The President on Monday said he was not supporting any presidential candidate “at this time,” unless there would be a “compelling reason” to change his decision.
In November, he rejected a possible coalition between his party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, and his daughter’s party because “Marcos is there.”
He also publicly criticized Marcos, calling him a “very weak leader” and a “spoiled child.”
Despite this, it was still important for Marcos to get Duterte’s endorsement of his candidacy because he remains popular in surveys even close to the end of his term just months away, according to the former senator’s spokesperson, lawyer Victor Rodriguez.
Important, but…
Maria Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, a professor and former dean of the National College of Public Administration and Governance at the University of the Philippines (UP), told the Inquirer that an “incumbent president’s endorsement per se is very important in Philippine elections because of the resources, machinery and other support that may be provided to the endorsed.”
But whether Marcos would get the coveted endorsement, Mendoza cited to Duterte’s criticisms against him.
“We don’t know if he would recall what he said earlier, when Mayor Sara requests his endorsement to their team,” she said. “Since blood is thicker than water, [the President] may flip flop and yield in, especially if there is a ‘grand design’ revolving around the disqualification of FMJr.”
Cozy, initially
UP political science professor Jean Encinas Franco said that the mere fact that the first daughter was Marcos’ vice president “is already tantamount to an endorsement,” adding that Duterte was “cozy with the Marcoses, initially.”
Franco, however, believes Duterte’s endorsement “is no longer crucial.”
She said no presidential candidate endorsed by the incumbent President since the 1986 People Power Revolution has won, except Fidel Ramos, who was backed by the late President Corazon Aquino.
“I want to argue, though, that Duterte paved the way for a Marcos presidential run. He helped erase history by burying Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani,” she said.
Franco said the shutdown of ABS-CBN also “emboldened Marcos Jr. to skirt traditional media and rely on social media for much of his campaign.”
‘Common enemy’
The academe-led fact-checking initiative Tsek.ph has found that Marcos Jr. gained from positive but misleading messages on social media, while Vice President Leni Robredo, the main opposition presidential candidate, had been the biggest victim of disinformation.
Lito Banayo, the campaign manager of Aksyon Demokratiko standard-bearer Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, said in an interview with ANC that the Manila mayor and Robredo had one “common enemy … and the common enemy is the front-runner right now, which is Ferdinand Marcos Jr.”
He also alleged that Marcos had thousands of trolls on social media and Domagoso had none.
Marcos has denied having any trolls and dared those making the claim to show him proof.Rodriguez said Banayo was “way off the mark” when he said that Marcos was the “common enemy.”
“The common and biggest enemy is unemployment,” he said in a statement. “Had [Banayo] not been hateful, he could not have missed the sight of the real enemies, which are unemployment at 6.5 percent and underemployment at 16.7 percent based on the PSA November 2021 statistics.” —WITH A REPORT FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA