Sara Duterte gets dad’s nod for candidacy in 2028 polls

Vice President Sara Duterte and former President Rodrigo Duterte (Composite image from file photos)

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte said her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, gave her the go signal to run in the 2028 elections should she wish to do so.

She, however, did not specify what elective post they discussed, but she regularly teases her supporters about running for president.

Sara made the pronouncement while in The Hague, Netherlands where she visited her father who is currently detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

According to the vice president, she and her father talked about the 2028 elections on her last visit to Rodrigo at the ICC detention centre.

“He said if you want to run, then run.  He said he’ll b the first to contribute and support you,” the younger Duterte said in a chance interview.

“He said he hopes that he’s  no longer detained by the time of the campaign because he really wants to campaign. But that of I tell him I’m running, he’ll be the first to help,”  you tell me you’re running… I’ll be the first to help,” she added.

READ: Sara Duterte still mum on 2028 election plans: ‘I might get killed’

The vice president in the same interview then shared that he also mentioned to her father how no Marcos will ever win the presidential elections ever again.

“I told him, no one will vote for a Marcos for President. First of all, who are his allies? The dilawan. And when it comes to the elections, the dilawan will choose one of their own.”

“I said, who’s even with him now, who are his allies now, Makabayan? If Makabayan were to choose, it’s like they’ve completely given up their money-making philosophy of wanting to bring down the administration and install themselves as the government. So, no one’s going to vote for him anymore.”

The vice president admitted that she voted for Marcos in the 2022 elections, but now deeply regretted it, reiterating that the only reason why Marcos picked her to be her running partner in the 2022 polls was because he was not confident in beating his rival, former Vice President Leni Robredo.

Originally running mates in the 2022 elections under the “UniTeam” brand, the pairing has since broken apart mere months after they both won the two highest positions in the country.

Their feud first reached its peak when Duterte left Marcos’ Cabinet—then escalated further a few months later when she bared that she assigned someone to kill Marcos, his wife Liza, and cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez in the event of her own demise. /gsg