Duterte won't allow Sara to run for president

President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday rejected the idea for daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, to seek the presidency in the future.

The younger Duterte has been floated as a possible successor to her father in 2022 but she remained coy about her political plans. In February, the mayor said running for president is a decision that requires a lot of thought and that she might come up with one by January 2021.

“‘Yang anak ko baka maano kayo I will advise her to lay off. Pero if I know Inday hindi yan tatakbo ng presidente. Wise masyado ‘yan si Inday,” the President said in a speech at the PDP-Laban campaign rally in Bacolod City. “She just want to shake the tree...shaking the tree and getting rid of the dry leaves and everything."

"Kung ako ang tanungin mo hindi ako papayag na tatakbo," he added.

Sara earlier said that her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago which she founded is not a vehicle for her presidential run but is an effort to help her father in having allies in the Senate who will legislate measures on positive change.

Duterte's spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said he "will not be surprised" if Sara succeeds her father in Malacañang in June 2022.

"In fact there is even a movement launching her to be the next president. Maraming bilib sa kanya eh. They see in her, the character of the father: magaling, matalino, mas matapang pa nga kay Presidente daw," Panelo said at a news conference in the presidential palace on February 15.

She once figured in the top 12 or winners' circle in pre-election surveys on senatorial preferences until she announced that she will just be running for another term as Davao City mayor. — BAP, GMA News