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MANILA (UPDATE) - Filipinos are not ready for a "Davao City-like" situation with the daughter-father tandem of Mayor Sara Duterte and President Rodrigo Duterte as top executives, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said Friday.

The elder Duterte has been prodded by his party-mates in PDP-Laban to seek the vice presidency as his term expires next year.

His daughter, meanwhile, topped an electoral survey published in December last year. She, however, said she does "not intend to run for President."

• Will Duterte run for VP as daughter's running mate in 2022?

The President told an audience earlier this month that Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go "wants to be President." The first-term lawmaker said Duterte was only joking, but added he would only run if Duterte becomes his runningmate.

"The Philippines is not Davao City. If they can do that in Davao City, I don’t think the Filipinos are ready for a Davao City-like political situation or arrangement. This is not to take away anything from Senator Go or Sara Duterte or President Duterte, but I don’t think Filipinos are ready to see a Davao City-like political situation in the whole country," Lacson told ANC's Headstart.

He said if this happens, the Philippines would be like a barangay or village of Davao City.

"I think it’s a bit too much. While you say it’s constitutional, legal, and it’s really up to the electorate to decide, but sa akin—this is personal—parang hindi magandang tingnan (it does not look good)," he said.

The President's spokesman Harry Roque denied that the proposed tandem came from government.

"Hindi po galing sa gobyerno iyang Duterte-Duterte," he said in a press briefing.

"Kung mayroon man pong mga taong gobyerno na nag-i-express niyan, iyan po ay mga personal na opinyon po nila dahil ang mandato po ng Presidente natin tutok muna tayo sa pandemya at saka na iyang pulitika."

(That Duterte-Duterte did not come from the government. If there are government personnel that express that, that is their personal opinion because the mandate of the President is for us to focus first on the pandemic and that politics would come later.)

Lacson himself was in the top 10 people in the December 2020 survey that asked respondents who they would vote for if the 2022 elections were held today, tying with Sen. Go at 6th place.

In the interview, he said he has not yet decided what he will do next year.

The only commitment he made that is "cast in stone" is that he will support Senate President Vicente Sotto III "kung anuman yung posisyon na tatakbuhan niya" (whatever position he will run for).

He said he laughed at the pictures of him and Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno that insinuated they could be a tandem for next year's election.

"We had coffee along with some friends...Wala naman kaming pinag-usapang ganun. Ang pinag-usapan namin yung vaccines. Of course napag-usapan din ang 2022 and he said he’s on a parang consultation tour," he said.

(We had coffee along with some friends. We did not talk of anything like that. What we talked about are the vaccines. Of course, we talked about 2022 and he said he's on something like a consultation tour.)

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