The viral photo of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, with brothers Paolo and Sebastian, being photobombed by their father, President Rodrigo Duterte. SCREENGRAB / FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY—Will Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte succeed his sister, Mayor Sara Duterte, in 2019?
Sara’s earlier comments have ended speculations that she would run for re-election, confirming instead that she would seek the seat to be vacated by three-term Davao City 1st District Rep. Karlo Nograles.
Paolo, on the other hand, on Thursday said he would not seek the city mayor’s post in the mid-term elections.
“When Mayor Sara announced that she will file [her candidacy] for a congressional seat in the 1st District, everybody has been asking me where I am going,” Paolo told reporters here.
He said he had made up his mind that he would be retiring from public service and “going back to farming.”
Duterte said his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, was the likely contender for the mayoral seat.
“It will still be a Carpio-Duterte tandem—the mayor and vice mayor—but definitely, [the Duterte] will not be me,” he said.
Paolo said the family was still talking to “a Duterte,” who will be Carpio’s running mate.
Pressed as to who the other Duterte was, he said it was his brother Sebastian.
Carpio, Sara’s husband, was very qualified to lead the city with his background in law, Paolo said.
Sebastian, on the other hand, has never been elected to a political position.
President Duterte said Sebastian, his youngest, loves to party and meet celebrities.
Paolo said he has had enough of politics and wanted to focus more on his family and to concentrate on his small farm.
He said politics had affected his family so much, particularly the issues that Sen. Antonio Trillanes had accused the vice mayor and his family.
Paolo once recounted how his daughter, Sabina, cried because of the allegations hurled by the senator against him.
Trillanes named Paolo and Carpio as the main personalities behind the so-called Davao Group, which allegedly facilitated smuggling in the Bureau of Customs. The senator said the vice mayor was also a member of the international drug syndicate Triad and had amassed millions in ill-gotten wealth. —ALLAN NAWAL