Sara Duterte-Carpio, daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and mayor of the city of Davao, announced her candidacy for the country’s vice president in next year’s elections, thus putting an end to months of speculation.
Duterte-Carpio will present herself as a candidate for the center-right Lakas-CMD party, which she joined just two days ago, and was chosen as vice-president of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the late dictator, in an alliance that alarmed human rights activists.
Marcos Jr. filed his papers with the Election Commission last month. His party, the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, appointed Sara Duterte as its vice president on Saturday. In an unclear turn of events that reinforced speculations about an ongoing confrontation between the president and his daughter, Elder Duterte suddenly showed up at the electoral commission on Saturday to accompany
his former aide, Senator Bong Go, who is running for president.
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The president’s communications officer, Martin Andanar, said the outgoing president could also reconsider running for vice president, a choice that would turn him against his daughter.
Filipino presidents and vice-presidents are elected separately and could form an alliance even if they are part of different political parties. The constitution prohibits a second presidential term, which lasts six years, which is why Duterte cannot re-run.
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Ferdinand Marcos, who was overthrown in 1986 in a “people’s power” uprising in favor of democracy and died in exile in the United States three years later, and the current president have both been criticized for gross human rights violations. Marcos introduced martial law in 1972 in an era marked by widespread atrocities and economic plunder. Duterte was condemned by Western governments and human rights groups for the brutal anti-drug crackdown that resulted in the deaths of over 6,000 suspected people, a long trail of blood that is being investigated by the International Criminal Court.
“The Marcos-Duterte tandem is the greatest threat to the democratic aspirations of the people,” Renato Reyes of Bayan, a leading left-wing coalition, told the AP. The Duterte-Marcos alliance “serves only the narrow interests of their dynastic families”. His group immediately launched an online protest and scheduled a demonstration on Sunday at the Human Rights Commission.
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