2022 PH Elections - News

Bongbong Marcos adopts Sara Duterte as VP bet

Bea Cupin

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Bongbong Marcos adopts Sara Duterte as VP bet

SOCIAL DISTANCING. Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and Bongbong Marcos at the birthday party of Congresswoman Yedda Romualdez in Cebu on October 23, 2021.

Facebook page of Mayor Sara Duterte

(1st UPDATE) The two leading candidates in early presidential surveys join forces for the 2022 polls

Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will adopt Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte as his vice presidential candidate in the 2022 elections, his party Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) decided on Saturday, November 13.

PFP issued a resolution on Saturday afternoon adopting Sara and endorsing her for vice president in 2022. The resolution quickly followed Sara’s filing of her certificate of candidacy (COC) as substitute for Lakas-CMD’s Lyle Uy at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

PFP Secretary General Thompson Lantion also confirmed the resolution, saying “yes” in a text message to Rappler when asked if the party will adopt Sara as vice president.

For Lakas-CMD’s part, Senator Bong Revilla, party chairman, said Saturday they are “in the process of formalizing the adoption of a standard-bearer who Inday Sara will be running with as her president.”

Abangan po natin ang Dream Tandem na aakay sa bansa tungo sa hinahangad nating pagbangon mula sa pandemya at tuloy-tuloy na progreso,” Revilla said.

(Let’s watch out for the Dream Tandem who will carry the country to our desired recovery from the pandemic and toward continued progress.)

Marcos told SMNI earlier on Saturday that a Marcos-Duterte tandem will be a strong tandem, and ideal for him and other allied parties.

This whirlwind turn of events, decided in a wedding in Cavite last week where Sara was sworn in as Lakas-CMD member, started publicly in Cebu City weeks earlier.

On October 23, Marcos visited vote-rich Cebu, his first visit after he announced his presidential bid. After that, Sara withdrew her candidacy for reelection as Davao City mayor, quit her party Hugpong ng Pagbabago, and switched to former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Lakas-CMD.

Cebu City is also where Corazon Aquino hid after dictator Ferdinand Marcos issued a “shoot-to-kill order” against her four decades ago.

To say that Marcos and Duterte would make for a strong 2022 tandem is an understatement. Marcos is number two in the latest September 2021 Pulse Asia presidential preference survey – second only to Sara herself. The vice presidential race, based on surveys, had been led by Senate President Tito Sotto.

Both supporters and political allies have urged Sara to run for president, a call she had repeatedly rejected. The ruling PDP-Laban kept her in consideration, leading her to say in a statement that she would not be their standard-bearer. Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a long-time Duterte ally and former police chief, is the ruling party’s standard-bearer for now.

The Marcos-Duterte tandem also brings together two electoral bailiwicks – the so-called “Solid North” and the Mindanao vote, which Sara dominates in the pre-election surveys on possible presidential aspirants (47% in the latest Pulse Asia survey, with Senator Manny Pacquiao’s 15% a distant second).

Marcos, notably, is weakest in the Visayas and Mindanao (5% and 8% voter preference, according to the same September 2021 survey). Sara also leads in the Visayas, but not by a lot – 23% of those surveyed said they would pick her if she would run for president, but Pacquiao isn’t too far behind with 21% of respondents picking him if presidential elections were held during the survey period.

Marcos and Sara are children of Philippine presidents. President Rodrigo Duterte has drawn comparisons to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in terms of human rights abuses, attacks on press freedom, and favoring particular businessmen. – Rappler.com

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Bea Cupin

Bea is a senior multimedia reporter who covers national politics. She's been a journalist since 2011 and has written about Congress, the national police, and the Liberal Party for Rappler.