Duterte during a pre-recorded TV interview with Sonshine Media Network International in Davao City aired on March 12, 2022. MALACAÑANG PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—In just one month and three weeks, voters will decide the country’s future when they choose the candidates they want to fill more than 18,000 elective positions nationwide—starting with the successor of President Rodrigo Duterte, a post which is being contested by at least 10 candidates.
As presidential candidates continued to scramble for supporters and votes, the most crucial endorsement—by Duterte—appeared to be elusive although the outgoing president had given broad hints about his preferred successor.
The President has yet to name the candidate he would endorse to replace him but had resorted, yet again, to blind items about the character of the candidate he preferred.
His latest blind item was to describe his ideal successor as a lawyer who is compassionate.
READ: ‘Sana abogado:’ A compassionate lawyer will make a good president, says Duterte
“You must be decisive…I did not say that it’s the best quality, but one of the good qualities of a president, hopefully, a lawyer,” Duterte said in an interview with Apollo Quiboloy over Quiboloy’s TV station Sonshine Media Network International.
“The president should be a compassionate one, one who is pro-people,” Duterte added.
Two out of ten
If Duterte’s preference for a lawyer as his successor would be the gauge, the list would be thin.
Among 10 candidates for president, only two are lawyers—Vice President Leni Robredo and Jose Montemayor Jr.
Robredo finished her law studies in 1992 at the University of Nueva Caceres. She passed the Bar examinations in 1996 and, in 1997, she was admitted to the Philippine Bar Association.
GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan
After she passed the Bar she joined the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) until 1999, where she provided “legal assistance, counseling, and other legal services to indigent litigants to ensure their free access to the courts, as mandated by the Constitution.”
As a lawyer, she was also a part of the Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (SALIGAN)-Bicol Chapter, where she was a branch coordinator and lawyer for 13 years.
“Here, she represented marginalized individuals in court, and provided legal education for clients through legal clinics and helping them understand relevant laws by translating and publishing Bicol versions of the text,” the official website of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) stated.
In 2017, the University of Cordilleras conferred the degree Doctor of Laws Honoris Causa to Robredo.
Montemayor had his Bachelor of Laws degree at the Philippine Law School while he took International Master of Laws-Human Rights at the Ateneo de Manila University from 2011 to 2014.
Aside from working as a cardiologist at major hospitals, he also said on his website that he is currently a professor of law at San Sebastian College, University of Manila, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Philippine Christian University, University of the Philippines-MCLE and New Era University.
He is also a professor in San Sebastian College, Palawan State University, San Beda College for graduate studies (MBA, LLM, Ph.D.).
He also noted that, as a lawyer, he is a member of the legislation committee of the Philippine College of Physicians, a special consultant and member of the legislation committee of the Philippine Heart Association, and legal counsel at the Philippine Heart Center.
According to data from Vote Pilipinas, the physician-lawyer is also a member of the Philippine Bar Association and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Quezon City Chapter, and a life member at the IBP.
Vote Pilipinas is the official voter information campaign partner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
“Vote Pilipinas is a non-profit, non-partisan online and offline information campaign aimed at mobilizing Filipinos to register to vote for the 2022 national and local elections.”
Duterte’s latest remarks stirred speculation on whether he will endorse one of the two lawyer candidates.
The president was previously expected to support and endorse former Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the current running mate of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, the president’s daughter, who is running for vice president.
Endorsement hints?
Aside from Duterte’s recent statement, he also gave a couple of remarks about who he preferred to succeed him.
On March 5, in his speech at the inauguration of the Narvacan Farmer’s Market in Ilocos Norte—a bailiwick of the Marcos family—Duterte said people can choose which Ilocano leader they want in Malacañang.
GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan
“In my Cabinet, there are only four or three of us who are Bisaya, the rest are Ilocanos,” said Duterte.
“So I might as well give this away. In a month I’ll leave Malacañang, choose your Ilocano leader to place there,” he added.
READ: Duterte: Pick which Ilocano leader you want in Malacañang
The only Ilocano among the presidential candidates for the May 9 elections is Marcos Jr.
Duterte, however, had referred to an unnamed candidate, but popular, candidate as a “weak leader.”
“I’m not impressed by him. He is a weak leader. It’s true, I’m not accusing anybody. He’s just a weak and spoiled child, the only son of the family,” Duterte said in November last year.
READ: Duterte takes jab at Bongbong Marcos anew, calls him ‘weak leader’
Last March 9, acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar said in an interview over PolitikoTV Channel that Duterte may endorse or support a presidential candidate whose name contains the letter “O.”
All presidential candidates, however, have that vowel in their names.
When asked which vowel is the name of the candidate who is less likely to get Duterte’s endorsement or support, Andanar said “maybe U.”
Sen. Manny Pacquiao and labor leader Leody de Guzman are the only candidates whose names contain the letter U.
Last March 11, however, Andanar clarified that his statements were not from Duterte himself, adding that it was still “difficult” to tell whether the president would endorse a preferred successor.
“That became big news. Again, that was one of the fast talk questions,” Andanar said in an interview with CNN Philippines. “So, I didn’t know the questions ahead of time. So, I need to just trust my instincts on which letter I should mention,” he said.
“That wasn’t from the President – the comment there. That was only from me,” Andanar clarified.
Duterte previously declared support for the presidential bid of Senator Bong Go. However, Go announced his withdrawal from the presidential race on Nov. 30 last year.
READ: Bong Go withdraws from presidential race; PDP-Laban now without standard-bearer
Duterte, in an interview last Feb. 25, again said he was not inclined to endorse any candidate for president, for now, saying he preferred to “stay neutral.”
“It means I will not support any candidate unless, again, there’ll be a compelling reason for me to go out and tell the people what it is,” he said.
READ: Still no presidential endorsement from Duterte: ‘I’d like to stay neutral’
This was not the first time that Duterte said he was not endorsing any presidential candidate—at least for now.
Last Feb, 8, the eve of the start of the 2022 election campaign for national positions, Duterte said he was not supporting any presidential aspirant “at this time.”
READ: Duterte not supporting any presidential bet ‘at this time’
What the presidential candidates say
Last March 8, days after Duterte told the people in Ilocos Norte to choose which Ilocano leader they want in the Palace, the camp of Marcos Jr. said it remained “hopeful” of the president’s endorsement.
“We’re still hopeful and waiting for the very valuable endorsement from the President,” Marcos spokesperson Vic Rodriguez said in an interview.
“We hope that he [Duterte] will endorse Bongbong Marcos and our vice presidential candidate Mayor Inday Sara Duterte,” he added.
READ: Marcos camp still waiting, ‘hopeful’ of Duterte endorsement
The tandem of presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson and his running mate Senate President Vicente Sotto III previously considered Duterte’s endorsement “gold.”
However, they clarified that they will not solely rely on the support of anyone going forward in their campaign.
“The endorsement of President Duterte is gold, but since he has decided not to endorse anyone, he’s letting the people choose for themselves,” Sotto said in a press conference last month.
“That’s his prerogative, whether to endorse anyone or not. That’s his own decision. We are running not relying on anyone’s endorsement, what we’ll do is to educate the voters,” Lacson said.
READ: Duterte endorsement is ‘gold,’ but Lacson-Sotto tandem won’t rely on it
In December, Pacquiao said he was open for an endorsement from Duterte.
“We have talked but for me, I am for unity. We will welcome everyone who believes in us,” Pacquiao said.
“I am okay with it, as I have said, we are welcoming all the support from Filipinos because that’s what we want—that there is unity and that people believe in what I have in my heart for the country,” he added.
READ: Pacquiao open to a Duterte endorsement for president
In an interview with INQUIRER.net, Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor of the University of the Philippines Diliman, explained that endorsements reflect a broad range of interests and might sway voters.
She told INQUIRER.net, however, that “more discerning voters” would also link the perceived values and characters of endorsers with those of the candidates they are endorsing.
“Endorsements also reflect perceived values and preferences of candidates, which may be taken positively or negatively by voters depending on how they perceive the endorsers,” she said.