Sara says dad, brothers ‘raring to run’
FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte and his sons Rep. Paolo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte will run for senator in the midterm elections next year, Vice President Sara Duterte said yesterday.
“Lahat sila raring na tumakbo (They are all raring to run),” the Vice President told reporters in Cagayan de Oro City. “Si PRRD (former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte), senador; ‘yung kuya ko si Paolo Duterte, ‘yung congressman ngayon, senador; si Sebastian Duterte, senador (PRRD will run for senator; my elder brother Paolo Duterte who is now a congressman, also for senator; Sebastian Duterte, senator).”
The Vice President, who just has resigned from the Marcos Jr. cabinet as Education secretary and as co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), also said her younger brother Sebastian or “Baste” will seek the presidency in 2028 while she will return to running for mayor of Davao City.
“My mother said, my younger brother will run for senator, Baste Duterte (in 2025). He will run for president in 2028. My mother said, I’ll return to Davao, I’ll run for mayor,” she said in Visayan. “Tatlo ang Duterte next year… yes, confirmed ‘yan (Three Dutertes will run next year… yes, that’s confirmed.”
The former president last year accused Speaker Martin Romualdez of trying to ease out his daughter for being a perceived as a “strong” presidential candidate in 2028, saying the Speaker, himself, is eyeing the presidency. He has also called President Marcos Jr a drug user and addict.
A rift between Romualdez, a first cousin of Marcos, and the Vice President began last year after the House leadership removed her close ally, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, as senior deputy speaker following an alleged plot to oust the Romualdez.
The Vice President, in an interview in Davao City last Sunday, said she and the President are “still friendly with each other on a personal level.”
The elder Duterte has been attacking the administration over different issues, including Charter change and Congress’ move to strip the Office of the President of its confidential and intelligence funds which lawmakers realigned to agencies at the forefront of protecting the country’s territorial integrity in the West Philippine Sea.
ALL-OUT WAR
A member of the militant Makabayan bloc at the House, Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT), said with the Vice President’s statement, it will be an “all-out war between the two factions of the ruling class.”
She called on Filipinos “to remain vigilant and to resist these attempts by political dynasties to monopolize power and perpetuate their rule at the expense of genuine democracy and the interests of the masses.”
Castro also said there will be a proxy war between the Marcos and the Duterte families because they are both backed by super powers — Marcos by the United States and the Dutertes by China.
She assailed what she called the Duterte family’s “apparent plan to further expand their power and position in national politics.”
“This is the height of bureaucrat capitalism, where a single family wants to control every aspect of a nation’s politics. They’ve turned running for public office into a business not only to steal but to cover up their sins to the people. The Marcos family did it and now, the Dutertes want to follow suit,” she said in mixed Filipino and English.
Castro said the latest political development “exposes the intensifying conflict between two factions of the ruling class.”
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said the plan of the Dutertes to run for the Senate next year will serve as a chance for Filipinos to wholly reject them.
“Maganda yan para isang bagsak ang pag-reject ng mga Pilipino sa pamilya Duterte (That’s good as it will be the chance for the Filipinos to reject the Dutertes),” he said.
Salvador Panelo, former chief presidential of the elder Duterte, said three Dutertes running for the Senate in 2025 “is a political storm that their detractors and those undeservingly clinging to power will not be able to contain and survive.”
“The Dutertes will be the demolition team that will dismantle the vested political structures built by those who turned their backs on the people’s welfare and interest and who focused on enriching themselves in office and transgressing the constitutional rights of individuals and entities,” he added. — With Raymond Africa and Jocelyn Montemayor
