Sara Duterte will do best to attend VP proclamation – spox

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on the campaign trail. (File photo from Lakas-CMD)

MANILA, Philippines — The presumptive vice president, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, will try to attend the proclamation of the vice president-elect by Congress, which is expected to take place on Wednesday, her spokesperson,  Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco of Liloan, Cebu, said on Tuesday.

According to Frasco, the Davao City mayor has meetings in Iloilo and Antique, where she would also attend the wake of a supporter who allegedly took his own life after being bullied online.

Nevertheless, Frasco said that Duterte-Carpio was informed about the possible proclamation date by the legal counsel of the Lakas-CMD party.

“She had earlier set a visit to the wake of a supporter in Antique who was depressed and bullied because of his political preferences and eventually committed suicide. Inday Sara also has meetings in Antique and Iloilo,” Frasco said.

“She will endeavor to attend the proclamation and exert her best efforts to make it on time to Manila. Thank you,” she added.

Congress, which jointly convened on Tuesday to start the canvassing of votes in the presidential and vice-presidential race, expects to proclaim the winning candidates by Wednesday afternoon.

Canvassing stopped at around 11:00 p.m. on Tuesday, with 105 of 173 certificates of canvass (COCs) processed.

The partial and unofficial count posted on the Commission on Election (Comelec) transparency server showed that Duterte and her running mate for president, former Sen. Bongbong Marcos, are headed towards a landslide victory.

Results from the transparency server as of May 11 showed Marcos with over 31.09 million votes, way ahead of closest rival Vice President Leni Robredo’s 14.81 million votes.

Duterte-Carpio got 31.55 million votes, also way ahead of Robredo’s running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who got to 9.230 million.

Earlier, Marcos’ spokesperson, lawyer Vic Rodriguez, said that the presumptive president would be attending the proclamation.

Marcos and Duterte-Carpio would be the second tandem for the two highest government posts to both win, as the country elects the president and vice president separately.

The last time this happened was in 2004 when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who had succeeded to the presidency when Joseph Estrada was ousted by people power in 2001, won with then ABS-CBN broadcaster Noli de Castro.

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