Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte plans to run for a Senate seat at next year’s mid-term elections along with his two sons, his daughter said this week, following the collapse of his family’s political alliance with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Vice President Sara Duterte made the announcement on Tuesday, just a week after her sensational resignation from Marcos’ cabinet, Rappler reported.
In addition to the former president, Sara Duterte said that her brothers Sebastian and Paolo Duterte are also eyeing seats in the Senate, and that her mother is also urging the former to run for the presidency in 2028. Sebastian – Baste for short – is the mayor of Davao City, a position held by both Rodrigo and Sara, while Paolo, the eldest of the former president’s children, is the sitting congressman for the city’s first district.
“According to my mother, my younger brother Baste Duterte will run for senator, and he will run for President in 2028,” Sara said, according to the translation provided by Rappler. “She also said that I should return to Davao and run for mayor again.” Sara is also believed to harbor ambitions for the presidency in 2028.
Coming after a dramatic week that saw Sara resign as education secretary and vice-chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, the announcement sets up a showdown with the Marcos clan at the May 12 mid-term election. The polls will see the election of all 316 seats in the House of Representatives and 12 of the Senate’s 24 seats, in addition to hundreds of other municipal and regional positions.
Last week, the president’s office announced that Sara Duterte had “tendered her resignation,” effective June 19. In a subsequent statement, Duterte, who will remain vice president, did not offer an explicit reason for the resignation, except to say that it was “not borne out of weakness.”
But relations between the Marcos and Duterte clans have deteriorated rapidly in the two years since their “Uniteam” partnership won a thundering victory in the 2022 presidential election. The two camps have fallen out over a number of issues, from Sara Duterte’s controversial use of “confidential funds” as education secretary to the Marcos administration’s plans to amend the Philippine Constitution.
While Duterte Sr. said that he would retire after leaving office in 2022, he has remained a vocal presence in politics and has not shied away from excoriating the Marcos administration’s performance. Over the past six months, he has accused Marcos’ legislative allies, including his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, of scheming to lift term limits and tighten their grip on power. (Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term.) He has also accused Marcos of being a drug addict, and led “prayer rallies” opposing any change to the Philippine Constitution. Baste has gone so far as to call publicly for Marcos to resign.
While Sara Duterte has downplayed suggestions by her supporters that she could become the “ultimate leader of the opposition” following her resignation from Marcos cabinet, the rumored Duterte Senate runs are a clear attempt to build momentum for the clan’s reconquest of the presidency in 2028. In the meantime, should the Dutertes manage to leverage their popularity into three seats in the Senate, they would have the ability to stymie, or at least complicate Marcos’ legislative agenda.
In the Philippines, the presidency and vice presidency are elected separately, and it is not unusual for the positions to be held by members of opposing parties. What is less common is for the two figures to have turned from allies to foes within a span of less than half a presidential term.
By the time of the election next May, Duterte Sr. will be 80 years old, and he has a history of health issues. The fact that he is willing to limp back into the political fray reflects the uncertain state of his family’s political fortunes, and the need to strike while Sara Duterte retains the vice presidency.
But not all are convinced that the Dutertes have a clear path back to power, let alone a vision for the country. The progressive party Akbayan this week said Duterte’s possible Senate bid is a move that “reeks of desperation” and that the clan “lack a coherent political project to survive.”
“It’s the final bluff of a fading political dynasty,” Rappler quoted the party as saying. “It is the last gasp by a faltering old man and his offspring to cling to political relevance.”