Senate run of 3 Dutertes doubted
FORMER senator Panfilo Lacson yesterday said he was not surprised with the announcement of Vice President Sara Duterte on Tuesday that her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and two brothers will seek Senate seats in next year’s elections.
He said it is part of the Duterte family’s strategy.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Like the father, the daughter believes that part of wise and smart politics is to confuse and keep them guessing; create an issue that evokes discourse thus accomplishing awareness while getting a glimpse of the pulse of the electorate,” he said.
Lacson said despite the Vice President’s pronouncement, he will believe the Dutertes will run for senator only after they have filed their certificates of candidacy in October.
“That said, I don’t think there is any firm decision made by any of the three Dutertes,” he added.
Lacson said if the Dutertes make it to the elections, the Senate will have political families as other siblings are either currently serving or are said to make a Senate.
“Senate 2025: Three Dutertes, three Tulfos (incumbent senator Raffy, congressman Erwin, and broadcaster Ben), two Villars (incumbent senator Mark, and congresswoman Camille), two Cayetanos (incumbent senators Pia and Alan Peter), two Ejercito-Estradas (incumbent senators Jinggoy and Joseph Victor) – and the list goes on… because it is what it is — by the people, for the people, of the people,” he said.
Former senator Leila de Lima, recently cleared of the last of drug cases filed by the Duterte administration, said the supposed planned Senate run of the three Dutertes raises the question of their true intent.
“Di ko alam kung seryoso yan… Gimmickry lang ba yan or baka gusto lang manggulo dahil the very day after nung favorable ruling ko, bigla naman may ganoong announcement. May pasabog sila. So tignan natin kung gaano sila ka-seryoso (I don’t know if they are serious… Is it just plain gimmickry or they just want to muddle things up because on the very day after my favorable ruling, they suddenly came out with such an announcement. They dropped a bomb. So, let’s just see if they are really serious),” De Lima said in an interview with dyPM.
De Lima said former president Duterte has been known to flip flop on what he says, so it is hard to believe the pronouncement that he will run.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said the only objective of the announcement is to “control the narrative” while election day nears.
He said the Dutertes are making the election season early so that any issues hurled against the family will be connected to politicking.
Trillanes said the people should take this seriously and be prepared for a worst-case scenario should they win.
“Kung sasabihin natin na nanloloko lang, what does it make of VP Sara? Ibig sabihin manloloko iyon di ba. Pero kailangan din nating bigyan ng konsiderasyon kung sakali totoo yan kasi yan ang worst case scenario. So, at least handa ka (If we are saying that it is only a joke, then what does that make of VP Sara? Does it mean that she is a liar? But we also need to consider this if it is true because that will be the worst-case scenario. So, at least we are ready),” Trillanes told dyPM.
He also said if the Dutertes make a comeback, even only in the Senate, they will do nothing but to “hostage” the Marcos administration and ruin the country in general because they do not have any “specific advocacy but to return to power.”
At the House, the chair of the House committee on human rights urged the public to stop voting for candidates who have no respect for human rights as the panel continued its investigation into former President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
“Let’s not allow politicians who don’t believe in human rights to win,” Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante told the panel in Filipino towards the end of its hearing late Tuesday afternoon.
It was also then that the Vice President announced that her father, former president Duterte and her two brothers Rep. Paolo Duterte and Mayor Sebastian Duterte of Davao City will seek senatorial seats in next year’s midterm elections.
“Those who need to win are politicians with a passion for Filipinos, politicians who believe in the due process of law, not those who easily kill people),” he said.
PUBLIC’S DECISION
Senate President Francis Escudero said the Dutertes have the right to run for any public office, but it is the Filipino people who will ultimately decide who they will choose to serve them.
“Although this signals the start of politics and politicking, for me the last day of filing [for candidacy’ is still far and lots of things can still happen just like what we have witnessed in the past,” Escudero said in Filipino.
It can be recalled that in the 2016 elections, then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had been shrugging off reports that he will seek the presidency, saying he was bent on being re-elected as Davao City mayor. But he ran for president as a substitute candidate of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban), in place of the now late Martin Diño.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said having three members of Duterte family run for the Senate does not violate the law.
“It’s a democratic nation that we live in, so any Filipino has (a) right (to seek public office) provided that they have the proper qualifications to seek for higher office,” he told reporters during an event at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute.
The Speaker, who is a first cousin of President Marcos, said he is most likely to seek reelection as the representative of Leyte’s first district.
Romualdez played coy when asked if he has presidential ambitions, “Matagal pa ‘yun (that’s still far).”
The former president last year accused Romualdez of trying to ease out his daughter for being perceived as a “strong” presidential candidate in 2028, saying the Speaker, himself, is eyeing the presidency. He has also called President Marcos Jr a drug user and addict.
A rift between Romualdez, a first cousin of Marcos, and the Vice President began last year after the House leadership removed her close ally, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, as senior deputy speaker following an alleged plot to oust the Speaker.
The Vice President, in an interview in Davao City last Sunday, said she and the President are “still friendly with each other on a personal level.”
The elder Duterte has been attacking the administration over different issues, including Charter change and Congress’ move to strip the Office of the President of its confidential and intelligence funds which lawmakers realigned to agencies at the forefront of protecting the country’s territorial integrity in the West Philippine Sea. — With Wendell Vigilia
