- Duterte critic Leila De Lima acquitted of drug charge in the Philippines South China Morning Post
- Philippine court acquits top critic of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ The Indian Express
- Philippine court acquits former justice secretary of drug charges after key witnesses said they lied WSB Atlanta
- Philippine court acquits top critic of ex-president Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ South China Morning Post
- Philippine court dismisses drug charge against fierce critic of ex-president’s ‘war on drugs’ CNN
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Tag Archives: Duterte
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won’t run against daughter in election, spokesperson says
Earlier, Duterte’s communications secretary said the President would run for vice president, potentially facing his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, who filed her candidacy for the same position, according to CNN affiliate CNN Philippines.
“They love each other, father and daughter Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Mayor Inday Sara. They will not go against each other, they will not run against each other,” Roque told reporters.
Duterte is not eligible to run for president again.
Monday’s deadline for Philippine political parties to finalize candidates for next year’s election is keeping voters on the edge, with last-minute changes expected in unpredictable but significant presidential and vice presidential races.
In the Philippines, the president and vice president are elected in separate contests.
Duterte can run for other posts, such as senator, congressman, mayor or governor. He was mayor of Davao City before running for president in 2016.
His 43-year-old daughter had been expected to run to succeed him as president due to her popularity and clear lead in all opinion polls this year on preferred candidates.
She however signed on to run for the vice president’s post, but can still change her mind.
Philippines ‘Bong’ vs ‘Bongbong’ election drama builds, Duterte move eyed
MANILA, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Philippine voters were bracing on Sunday for more drama in a presidential race that already features a “Bong” vs “Bongbong” match-up and a potential 11th-hour challenge by President Rodrigo Duterte against his own daughter for the No. 2 post.
The jockeying before Monday’s registration deadline bolsters the view that the 2022 election will be dominated by powerful family dynasties rather than reforms.
Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, a Duterte loyalist, registered on Saturday to run for president after withdrawing from the vice presidential race, pitting himself against rivals including Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, son of the late dictator.
Sara Duterte-Carpio, who had been expected to run to succeed her father – who is barred by the constitution from seeking re-election – instead registered for vice president.
Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, a senator and the only man to hold world titles in eight different divisions, is running for president in what may be his toughest fight yet, promising to battle poverty and corruption.
Duterte’s communication secretary, Martin Andanar, said on Saturday the 76-year old leader, who only last month promised to retire from politics, would throw his hat in the vice presidential ring and run against his daughter.
Duterte said on Sunday he would make known his plans for the 2022 election “in a matter of hours” and that he was fully behind long-time aide Go – who for his part said he did not want to run against the president’s daughter.
Go, widely seen as the gatekeeper to the president, could benefit from the president’s popularity. Marcos said he wanted Duterte-Carpio, the popular mayor of Davao, to run on his ticket. She has yet to respond.
A Marcos and Duterte-Carpio ticket is a team to watch out for as both have performed relatively well in opinion surveys, political analysts say.
“Marcos is a very strong candidate from all indications,” Antonio La Vina, professor of law and politics at the Ateneo de Manila University, told Reuters.
Duterte-Carpio said on Facebook her decision to seek the No. 2 post, instead of the presidency, was her way to meet her supporters half-way.
If the president does run for vice president with Go, they could take votes away from his daughter’s ticket, having some impact on Marcos’s bid, La Vina said.
Marcos, whose presidential candidacy has stirred anger among victims of his father’s brutal era of martial law, is facing a disqualification case.
President Duterte, in an interview with a YouTube vlogger, said he had been surprised by his daughter’s election plans, as she had been leading in the polls for president.
“I didn’t know about it. I don’t ask. We have not been talking,” Duterte said in the interview, a transcript of which was provided to reporters on Sunday.
“The drama is not yet over,” La Vina said.
Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Sarah Duterte: Daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president
Duterte-Carpio, 43, who replaced her father as mayor of Davao City and belongs to a different political party, had previously given mixed messages about running, despite opinion polls this year ranking her as the number one presidential prospect.
She will run in May 9, 2022 elections under the coalition party of Partido Federal and Lakas-CMD, alongside Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the party’s pick for President.
Earlier this week, Duterte-Carpio withdrew her candidacy for reelection as Davao mayor and resigned from her Davao-based party, Hugpong Ng Pagbabago.
The Philippines goes to the polls next year to decide positions from the President down to governors, mayors and local officials. The country elects its vice president separately from the President.
Duterte-Carpio will be going up against vice presidential candidates including her father’s close ally, Sen. Bong Go, Senate president Tito Sotto, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, former congressman Walden Bello, and Dr. Willie Ong, according to CNN affiliate CNN Philippines.
Duterte will step down from the presidency after serving six years in office. He is barred by the Philippine Constitution from seeking a second term.
A diverse range of hopefuls is seeking to succeed him.
Among those running for the presidency are Marcos Jr. — the controversial son and namesake of the late dictator who was overthrown in 1986; former boxing champion and senator Manny Pacquiao; incumbent vice president and Duterte critic Leni Robredo; and Isko Moreno, the mayor of Manila and a former actor.
This is a developing story, more to come.
Philippines presidential election: Inside the manic race to replace Duterte
Although the 2022 presidential election campaign is yet to begin, the machinations and drama are well underway.
Richard Heydarian, professor of history and political science at the Philippines’ Polytechnic University, says there is no clear frontrunner. “It is going to be highly, highly competitive,” he added.
The Philippines has only one round of voting, unlike many countries such as France, where there is a second ballot between the two most popular candidates. This means that whoever is in front at the end of counting will become president — no matter how small their total share of votes.
In a tight race, the prize could go to anyone. And the stakes are high.
With China and the US increasingly treating the Indo-Pacific as a staging ground for their global showdown, the Philippines will likely come under growing economic and geopolitical pressure, particularly as a claimant to part of the South China Sea.
During his time in office, Duterte aligned the Philippines closer to Beijing, publicly stating his “love” for President Xi Jinping as the leaders explored the possibility of joint resource contracts in the South China Sea.
At home, he has cracked down on civil society and sparked a bloody war on drugs that has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people, according to police.
And there are signs he may not be willing to let his influence go so easily. After accepting his party’s candidacy for vice president, Duterte announced last week he would be retiring from politics. Critics have pointed out Duterte also announced his retirement in 2015 before he changed his mind and ran for president.
Not only that, but his daughter — Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio — still has a month to decide if she’ll run for president as a substitute candidate.
Duterte has a personal incentive to retain some control over the future government: he’s facing an investigation by the International Criminal Court into his war on drugs and his successor could influence how much access they get to the Philippines.
Journalist Maria Ressa, the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and president and chief executive of local media outlet Rappler, said the 2022 elections were “existential for democracy.”
“We’re at the edge of a cliff … whoever wins will determine whether we’ll have rule of law, whether our economy can grow, whether we can survive the virus, whether our society can heal,” she said.
The dictator’s son
In a post to his official Facebook page on Tuesday, the son of the man accused of imprisoning, torturing and impoverishing the Filipino people asked his supporters to join him in “the noblest of causes.”
Marcos Jr., known colloquially as “Bongbong,” announced he would run for president in the 2022 election, pitching himself as a unifying candidate who could bring the country together after the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The date of his announcement was inauspicious — it came just after the 49th anniversary of his father, Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, imposing martial law on the country.
Marcos ruled the country with an iron fist for two-and-a-half decades before he was deposed by a popular protest in 1986.
The Marcos family profited greatly from its time in power, with some experts estimating a net gain of more than $10 billion during the patriarch’s dictatorship. Marcos Jr. has claimed many of the allegations against his family are slanderous.
But human rights groups in the Philippines are horrified at the prospect of a member of the Marcos family running for the country’s highest position. Protesters rallied outside the Commission on Human Rights building in Manila on Wednesday to show their disgust.
“The Marcoses remain scot-free from jail, they haven’t returned all the money that they got from the nation’s coffers, and now they are making a comeback for the highest position in the land. That is just plain, shameless gall,” Cristina Palabay of rights group Karapatan told Reuters.
Duterte has not been ashamed to tie himself to the Marcos family. There were even suggestions he might join Marcos Jr.’s ticket as candidate for vice president. “That’s the plan!” Marcos Jr. said Wednesday, according to ABS-CBN.
Ressa said Duterte’s popularity in the south of the Philippines, combined with Marcos’ popularity in the north, would create a formidable force.
Heydarian added the Marcos family had “grassroots support, resources and message discipline,” but their history would not play well with a population concerned about corruption.
“The issue of corruption is very, very sensitive for a lot of people,” he said.
The boxer
Pacquiao’s skill as a boxer is unquestionable. After a 26-year career, he is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, the only man to hold world titles in eight different divisions.
But the 42-year-old’s skill as a politician is far less clear — and something he will have to prove if he is going to be successful when he runs for president.
Highly charismatic and proudly Christian, Pacquiao was first elected to the Philippines senate in 2016, saying he wanted to help the country’s underprivileged. Pacquiao has said he lived in extreme poverty when he was young, selling candy and cigarettes to make ends meet. As a teenager he worked as a laborer to help his family — now he is a multimillionaire.
But Heydarian said since he joined the senate, Pacquiao’s time in office has been underwhelming. “He’s entering this race as someone whose mantle of statesmanship is still under question. He didn’t have the most impressive performance as senator,” he added.
Rather than running for vice president first, to show he was serious about the role, Pacquiao has jumped straight to the top job — and Heydarian said that might be a bit “early” for people. Still, his popularity with the country’s poor could make him a contender.
Duterte has previously said he sees Pacquiao as a potential successor, someone to stand for president with his blessing in 2022. But relations between the two men have soured — Pacquiao has publicly questioned Duterte’s attitude to China and accused his administration of misplacing $200 million in pandemic aid for the Philippines’ poor.
Pacquiao also has critics on the other side of the political divide, Ressa said. The boxer has frequently made controversial statements about LGBTQ rights and abortion. In 2016, while running for the senate, Pacquiao said gay people were “worse than animals.”
Ressa said the Philippines will need urgent action to recover from the Duterte years and the Covid-19 pandemic, and questioned whether Pacquiao had the political coalition or the governing experience to make it happen.
“Whoever will become president next will have real problems to deal with, and they’re going to have to have competent people to deal with it,” she said.
The actor
Pacquiao isn’t the only rags-to-riches story of the 2022 campaign — nor the only star.
Manila Mayor Moreno, who filed his candidacy for president this week, has had a meteoric political rise over the past three years. A native of Manila, he said he grew up in the city’s slums where he made a living by collecting trash to be resold.
He rose to prominence as an actor in the 1990s appearing in “bomba” films, a type of softcore erotic movie made in the Philippines. Moreno often played the romantic lead.
In fact, Moreno’s real name is Francisco Domagoso — Isko Moreno is his stage name.
Using his reputation as a stepping stone, Moreno moved into politics in 1998 as a city counselor in Manila before being elected vice mayor in 2007, and then mayor in 2019.
Just two years after his win, he is aiming to lead the entire country. Like Duterte, Moreno is a populist, Heydarian said, but one of a different stripe.
“(He) represents what I call ‘polite populism’: cost-free, family orientated, even pious kind of rhetoric,” he said, adding that Moreno trumpets centrist and even at times progressive policies.
The Vice President
At the other end of the spectrum from Marcos is incumbent Vice President Robredo.
In the Philippines, presidents and vice presidents are elected separately and can even be from different parties. A human rights lawyer, Robredo has been a frequent critic of the Duterte administration and has fought publicly with the President over his war on drugs, which she called “senseless.”
In 2019, Duterte appointed her as co-chair of the government’s anti-drug agency for less than three weeks before firing her for setting up meetings with international agencies.
She has also been honored for her work advocating for gender equality and women’s rights.
Accompanied by her two daughters, Robredo on Thursday called for the country to follow her and help “ensure a future of equal opportunities.”
Heydarian pointed out that Robredo is currently running fifth in the polls despite her national reputation — behind Marcos, Pacquiao and Moreno.
However he said the Vice President had a wide network of supporters across the country from her time in office. “We saw in the 2016 (Vice Presidential) election she was able to turn things around against all odds and against a very competitive candidate,” Heydarian added.
The shadow of Duterte
While the country’s attention has largely been fixed on the candidates who have already declared, none of them are leading recent polls, according to Heydarian.
He said the most popular contender is Duterte-Carpio, Duterte’s daughter.
As of Friday, Duterte-Carpio had not declared her candidacy but instead has filed paperwork to run again for Davao mayor. On Monday, her spokesman said she had “no intention” of taking the leadership of her father’s party.
But under the quirks of the Philippines election system, filing for the mayoral election means she now has until November 15 to consider switching her campaign from mayor to president under a substitution.
That’s exactly what her father did in 2016.
Heydarian said Duterte-Carpio isn’t like the President in many ways — she welcomes the opinion of experts and takes considered decisions, unlike her impulsive father.
But critics have seen her potential candidacy for president as another way for Duterte to hold sway over the Philippines after he leaves power.
And that is assuming her father doesn’t change his mind about running for vice president. Ressa said she doesn’t trust Duterte’s statement that he would retire from politics — he said the same thing in 2016 and then ran for the country’s highest office.
Whoever ends up taking power in the Philippines, Ressa said they will inherit a country “in a far worse place” than Duterte did.
“The legacy of Duterte is the breakdown of the different branches of government and the corruption of the different weak institutions,” she said.
“We were just at the point where our institutions were starting to solidify … the last five years have really taken those dreams and dashed them.”
‘I’m quitting politics’, says Rodrigo Duterte – for a second time | Rodrigo Duterte
Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has announced that he will retire from politics and abandon his bid to become vice-president in next year’s election, fuelling speculation that his daughter Sara Duterte will instead run for office.
Duterte had previously accepted a nomination by his party to stand in the May election, a controversial plan that could have allowed him to retain power beyond the limits of his six-year term. However, recent polling suggests that many Filipinos disapproved of the idea, which critics warned would undermine the constitution.
Addressing reporters on Saturday, Duterte, 76, said he had halted his bid “in obedience to the will of the people”.
“The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipino is that I’m not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution,” Duterte said. “I will follow what you wish and today I announce my retirement from politics.”
The latest comments by the president, who also announced his retirement in 2015, are likely to be treated with cynicism. He will, say analysts, be determined to ensure a loyal successor who will protect him from potential prosecution by the international criminal court. It announced last month that it is investigating his so-called “war on drugs”, in which as many as 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed.
Currently the mayor of Davao, Sara Duterte, 43, is leading in the polls and appears to have benefited from her father’s enduring popularity. She has in the past said she will not run if her father also competes for a national position next year.
“Much of the public sees this as political theatre,” said Jean Franco, associate professor at the department of political science at the University of the Philippines.
“He has a history of dilly-dallying and then suddenly running… At least at the moment people seem to be sceptical of his statement that he is retiring. People seem to be anticipating another move in the coming days,” she added.
As Duterte withdrew his candidacy yesterday, his longtime aide Christopher “Bong” Go instead registered to run for vice-president.
More than 60 million Filipinos will vote in May for a new president, vice president and 18,000 other positions, including at the local government level.
“It’s going to be a circus,” said Franco. “But by now I’m pretty sure all the candidates are talking about is the father and daughter political theatre that happened today.”
Duterte Says He Will Retire Rather Than Seek the Vice Presidency
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines said on Saturday that he would retire rather than pursue the vice presidency next year, in a surprise reversal of a plan meant to keep him in national politics after his presidential term ends.
The Philippine Constitution limits presidents to a single, six-year term. But Mr. Duterte had announced that he would run for vice president in the May election, and his former chief aide, Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, had been expected to seek the presidency.
On Saturday, however, Mr. Go submitted papers declaring that he, not Mr. Duterte, would run for vice president. Mr. Duterte raised Mr. Go’s hand afterward in a show of unity.
Referring to opinion polls that indicated public opposition to his plan, Mr. Duterte said that “in obedience to the will of the people, who after all placed me in the presidency many years ago, I now say to my countrymen that I will follow your wishes.”
“Today, I announce my retirement. I thank you all,” he said. He gave no indication that he planned to step down before the end of his term next June.
Mr. Duterte’s announcement appeared to leave the field open for his popular daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, who had earlier said that she would only run for president if her father dropped out of the race. The Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao has also announced his candidacy for the presidency.
Last month, the International Criminal Court authorized a full investigation into Mr. Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, which has left thousands of people dead since he took office in 2016. Mr. Duterte’s critics in the Philippines saw his plan to seek the vice presidency, with a close ally as president, as a way to stay in power and shield himself from prosecution.
Mr. Go once said that he had promised to serve Mr. Duterte “as long as he lives.” On Saturday, he said he was running for vice president “to be able to continue the programs for real change begun by President Duterte.”
Mr. Go offered no apologies for the drug war, in which thousands have been gunned down by police officers and vigilantes, allegedly because they were involved with narcotics. “Let the public judge if their children feel safer now with less addicts and crime on the streets,” Mr. Go said.
Boxer Manny Pacquiao announces run for Philippines president
Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao on Sunday announced that he is running to be the next president of the Philippines.
Pacquiao was nominated by a faction of the ruling PDP-Laban party, which is also the party of the incumbent president, Rodrigo Duterte, Reuters reported.
“I am a fighter, and I will always be a fighter inside and outside the ring,” said Pacquiao, who currently serves as a Philippines senator. “I am accepting your nomination as candidate for president of the Republic of the Philippines.”
His nomination comes just days after a rival faction within the PDP-Laban party nominated Duterte’s chosen successor, Christopher “Bong” Go.
The same faction nominated Duterte as vice president, which critics lambasted as a thinly veiled attempt for him to hold on to power and possibly avoid prosecution for his bloody war on drugs. Under the country’s constitution, Duterte can no longer run for president but can run as vice president, as the positions are elected separately. Go ultimately declined the nomination.
Pacquiao, 42, has previously hinted that he would run for the presidency, though when he first entered politics, he was too young to be eligible. In the Philippines, presidential candidates must be at least 40 years old.
Reuters noted that Pacquiao, who served as president of the PDP-Laban party until July of this year, trails more promising front-runners in recent polling despite his popularity in the Philippines.
Pacquiao was once close allies with Duterte but has since become one of his most vocal adversaries, attacking him for his close relationship with China and accusing him of being soft on corruption.
Back in June, Duterte took shots at Pacquiao for this apparent about-face.
“You didn’t tell me anything all these years, you’re all praises and praises for me and now you’ll say corrupt,” Duterte said of Pacquiao’s criticisms. “I will hound you every day. I will expose you as a liar.”
Pacquiao has been a member of the Filipino congress since 2010, when he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 2016, he was elected to the Senate. As a politician, Pacquiao is known for holding conservative views aligning with his evangelical Christian beliefs.