It’s a boy for President’s daughter-mayor

DIGONG’S ‘APO’ Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio gives birth to President Duterte’s 10th grandchild via cesarean
section. With them is Sara’s husband, lawyer Manases Carpio. —PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVAO CITY INFORMATION OFFICE

DAVAO CITY—She loves the sea so much that for the third time, President Duterte’s daughter and city mayor, Sara Duterte-Carpio, named her newborn after another sea creature.

Stonefish, born at 12:56 p.m. on Thursday, has two older siblings—Sharky, 8, and Stingray, 4.

“She’s the mother ocean,” the city information officer, Jeffrey Tupas, said of the mayor’s propensity for names inspired by the sea.

Stonefish was born via cesarean section and weighed 2.42 kilograms, Tupas said.

The President  “is delighted with the arrival of his newest apo (grandchild), and is glad that both Mayor Inday Sara and Stonefish are healthy and stable,”  said Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

Stonefish is his 10th grandchild. His son, Davao Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, has five children, while the youngest, Baste, has two.

The latest birth has inspired the President to work harder to make the Philippines a safer place, and strengthened his “resolve to leave a legacy of a Philippines safe and secure from drugs and heinous crimes [for] future generations of Filipinos,” Abella added.

‘Gift of life’

The mayor’s husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, said he was thankful “for the gift of life.”

His wife was “stable and generally fine,” he added.

The couple has yet to announce Stonefish’s real name. Sharky is also named Mikhaila Maria, while Stingray is Mateo Lucas.

When the mayor’s pregnancy—through in vitro fertilization—was confirmed in July last year, she said she and her family were expecting triplets and that she was taking a three-week leave from work.

A few weeks later, she announced—and her doctor confirmed—the loss of two of the triplets she was carrying.—REPORTS FROM NICO ALCONABA AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA