Duterte daughter wants out of political circus

By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter

DAVAO City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio on Wednesday asked her father not to drag her into his political intramurals.

“I respectfully advise them to stop talking about me and make me the reason for them running or not running,” Ms. Carpio said in a statement.

Ms. Carpio, who topped recent opinion polls on next year’s presidential elections, issued the statement after President Rodrigo R. Duterte said he would run for vice-president next year. He also said he would abandon his presidential ambition if his daughter runs for President.

She said her father had told her about his decision to run for vice president next year with long-time aide Senator Christopher Lawrence T. Go, who is supposedly running for President. “It was not a pleasant event.”

The Davao City mayor said her father had asked her in a letter to either endorse the Go-Duterte tandem in the 2022 elections, or take in Mr. Go as her vice-president.

Ms. Carpio urged his father and Mr. Go “to own up publicly their decision to run as a tandem. If they can confirm it privately, then I do not see the reason why they cannot be candid about it to the public.”

She also said she was not a “last two minutes” person, alluding to how she could become a substitute presidential candidate, which happened to her father in 2016.

“I organize, and I implement accordingly,” Ms. Carpio said. “In the meantime, I refuse to be a political punching bag for a party in complete disarray,” she added, referring to factions in the ruling PDP-Laban.

Ms. Carpio wants to distance herself from her father “because they do not have the same people behind them,” says Jean S. Encinas-Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines.

She’s also trying to portray herself as an independent person “because women politicians, especially someone running for President, normally mimics the strength usually ascribed to men in power,” she said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

PDP-Laban earlier said Mr. Duterte, who is barred by law from running for reelection, had agreed to “make the sacrifice and heed the clamor of the people” by running for vice-president.

Mr. Duterte and his allies might just be “testing the waters” to know public sentiment, Ms. Franco said. The administration is also trying to create an impression that Mr. Duterte’s brand of leadership is still needed.

“This kind of zarzuela is normal in our politics because we do not have genuine democratic political parties,” said Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, a senior research fellow at the Ateneo De Manila University Policy Center.

“I really cannot say what is wrong with the administration camp because there are too many voices talking and actors positioning themselves,” he said. “What this tells us is that they still do not have a clear and definite campaign plan for 2022.”

Mr. Yusingco said the ruling party is not too fussed because the opposition has yet to put up a united front. “They have the luxury to be this disorganized at this point because there is still no serious threat to their chances of winning in 2022.”

Institute for Political and Electoral Reform Executive Director Ramon C. Casiple said the administration camp was just doing the “art of obfuscation,” noting that a lot is still in the negotiation stage.

“That’s the President’s tactic since his Davao entry into politics,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “Keep them guessing until it’s too late. Don’t take that as the final outcome yet.”

Mr. Duterte on Tuesday night said he would run for vice-president next year. “I will continue the crusade,” he said at a televised news briefing, referring to his campaign against illegal drugs, criminality and insurgency.

“I may not have the power to give the direction or guidance but I can always express my views in public for whatever it may be worth in the coming days,” he added.

In the Philippines, the President and vice-president are elected separately and may come from opposing political parties. The vice-president usually becomes powerless unless the President gives him a key post in his Cabinet.

The Go-Duterte tandem is “merely a smokescreen or distraction for their real candidate,” said Ronward Munsayac, who belongs to a faction in the party allied with Senator Emmanuel “Manny” D. Pacquiao.

“It’s impossible that the right hand of the President will go against his boss’s daughter,” he said in a Viber message. “This tandem is merely a distraction to shield their real candidate from political attacks and to weaken the PDP-Laban with this decoy candidacy.”

He said Mr. Go and Mr. Duterte could withdraw from the race at any time — from the time of the filing of certificates of candidacy up to noon time of election day.

Senator Aquilino L. Pimentel III on Tuesday said choosing the party’s vice-presidential bet before naming its presidential candidate was “an unusual circuitous convoluted process.”

Ms. Carpio said Mr. Pimentel and Mr. Munsayac should “stop blaming me for the sad state of their political party.” “It is not my fault that no one among you is a leader worthy of the respect of the majority. Do not blame me for the sitcom that your party has been reduced to.” — with Alyssa Nicole O. Tan