Duterte possible VP bid shows weakness in daughter's capacity to run: think tank

MANILA - Calls for President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president next year shows weakness in his daughter's presidential bid, a think tank head said Sunday.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio's ally had expressed belief she will run for president in the 2022 polls, after members of the ruling party PDP-Laban's national council voted on a resolution urging Duterte to run as vice president. The two have yet to talk about the respective issues.

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"Bakit kailangan tumakbo ang isang incumbent President? Meron ba tayong nakikitang kahinaan in terms of napipili possible candidate na kailangan niya ng kanyang ama to strengthen the tandem?" Victor “Dindo” Manhit told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo.

(Why does an incumbent President need to run? Do we see any weakness in terms of the possible candidate that she needs her father to strengthen the tandem?)

• Nothing unconstitutional, illegal in urging Duterte to run for VP: PDP-Laban exec

PDP-Laban officials backing the call for Duterte to run for vice president have cited the need for continuity of the administration's programs.

Manhit, president of Stratbase ADR Institute for Strategic and International Studies, also questioned Duterte-Carpio's possible tandem with her father when she was not even a member of PDP-Laban.

Duterte-Carpio heads the regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago.

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"Kasama talaga yan sa tinatawag namin na weak political party system natin. Parang walang proseso ng pagpili ng kandidato," Manhit said.

(It's included in what we call our weak political party system. It seems like there's no process in selecting candidates.)

"It’s just reflective na talagang personality-oriented ang ating political system (that our political system is personality-oriented)."

According to Sen. Koko Pimentel, Executive Vice Chairman of the PDP-Laban, Duterte-Carpio rejected "the idea of hijacking the PDP LABAN offered to her by rogue elements in the party."

"The PDP LABAN will field homegrown candidates as we are not lacking in talent. Hence we do not need to import personalities. We have our party ideology to guide us," Pimentel said last Friday.

• PDP-Laban exec says no need to tap outsider for party's 2022 standard bearer

Meanwhile, Manhit said the father-daughter tandem also does not bode well for the country's proposed anti-political dynasty law.

"Nakita natin itong ginagawa sa ibang bayan. Pero gagawin ba natin ito sa higher level which is the presidency and vice presidency? Sana naman 'wag mangyari," he said.

(We know this is done in various towns. But should we do it on a higher level, which is the presidency and vice presidency? We hope it won't come to this.)

"Kasi dun pa lang, makikita na kayo po ba ang pangulo, mayor o ang inyong ama?"

(Because it begs the question on who is really the president, Mayor Sara or her father?)

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Duterte, 76, is not eligible for re-election as President. In April 2019, he said he is "tired" and that did not have the "choice of being a politician forever."

• Duterte: 'I will step down at the end of my term'

"I will not stay forever, I will not be part of the political scenery in the coming years," he said then.

Duterte-Carpio, for her part, appealed in January to those who want her to run for president to wait until 2034.

• Sara Duterte to political supporters: Wait for 2034

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