Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his retirement from politics on Oct. 3. (Photo courtesy of Presidential Communications Operations Office)
CLIFF VENZON, Nikkei staff writer | Philippines
MANILA — Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday he will no longer seek the vice presidency in next year’s election and will retire from politics, a move that may clear the way for his daughter to run for president.
Duterte, who is constitutionally limited to a single six-year term as president, last month accepted his party’s nomination for the country’s second-highest office.
“The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipinos is that I am not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution to circumvent the law,” the 76-year-old Duterte said. “Today, I announce my retirement from politics.”
The remarks came shortly after Sen. Bong Go, Duterte’s longtime aide, filed his candidacy for vice president.
The latest developments will fuel speculation that presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte will move forward with a presidential bid, despite local media reports that she filed candidacy for a third term as Davao mayor on Saturday.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s Oct. 2 remarks may fuel speculation that his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, pictured here, will run to succeed him. © Reuters
The mayor, who has topped opinion polls, last month said she would not run for president, following an agreement with her father that only one of them would run for a national position.
Jean Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said recent polls showing a drop in public support for Duterte may have spurred him to back out. “The second explanation is this is really part of a game of trying to strategize for the 2022 elections,” Franco told Nikkei Asia. “Of course, this opens the way for Sara” to run, she said.
A Social Weather Stations survey conducted in June and published Sept. 27 showed that 60% of respondents believe Duterte’s vice presidential bid violates the spirit of the constitution on term limits. Meanwhile, Duterte fell to second place in a vice presidential poll conducted by Pulse Asia from Sept. 6 to 11, behind Senate President Vicente Sotto, who led by 11 percentage points.
The Philippine election commission is accepting candidacies for the May 2022 general election through Friday, but substitutions — similar to Duterte’s gambit in 2015 — are allowed until mid-November.
In 2015, Duterte initially filed his candidacy for reelection as Davao mayor. He was later substituted for a party member who backed out of the presidential race, winning the election the following year in a landslide.
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