Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Sara Duterte, the eldest daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, will contest to become vice-president in next year’s elections.
The Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter has registered her candidacy for vice-president in next year’s elections and was chosen as the running mate of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the late Filipino dictator. Sara Duterte will stand alongside son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 2022 elections in move that has alarmed rights activists.
Sara Duterte backed out this week from her re-election bid as mayor of Davao City in the south, then took the place of a largely unknown vice-presidential candidate of her political party, Lakas CMD, in a move that allowed her to seek the second-highest post even after a deadline lapsed for candidates in the 9 May elections.
This brought speculations about her contesting for the elections, to end. She had been widely expected to bid to succeed her father, who cannot stand for another term as president.
Marcos Jr filed his papers at the Commission on Elections last month. His federalist party, PFP, named Sara Duterte as his running mate.
Philippine presidents and vice-presidents are elected separately and could forge an alliance even if they run under different political parties. If elected from rival camps, they often end up in a hostile relationship.
Ferdinand Marcos, who was toppled in a 1986 pro-democracy uprising and died in US exile three years later, and the current president have both been criticised for gross human rights abuses.
Marcos placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972 in an era that was marked by widespread atrocities and economic plunder. Duterte has been condemned by western governments and human rights groups for a brutal anti-drugs crackdown that has left more than 6,000 mostly poor suspects dead in large-scale killings that are being investigated by the international criminal court.
