Presidential daughter and Davao mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio cannot run for presidency in the 2022 national elections if the Consultative Committee’s (ConCom) decision to include national and barangay positions in banning of political dynasties will be approved.
The committee voted 18-1, in favor of the rule that “no person related to an incumbent elective official within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity can run for the same position in the immediately following election.”
The rule applies on presidential and vice presidential positions.
The decision will be reviewed by President Rodrigo Duterte before he endorses it to the Senate during his State of the Nation Address in July. The Senate will then decide if the recommendations from the ConCom will be adopted.
On possible conflict between the recommendation and Sara Duterte being the presidential daughter, ConCom member Julio Teehankee said that they only did what they were tasked to do.
“But again, we followed the instruction of the President and to be fair with the President, he said we must do what is necessary,” Teehankee said. “He did not direct us toward any position.”
ConCom defines a political dynasty as “a family whose members are related up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, whether such relations are legitimate, illegitimate, half or full blood, maintains or is capable of maintaining political control by succession or by simultaneously running for or holding elective positions.”
In September 2017, President Duterte told reporters that he wants his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio to be the one to replace him in 2022, announcing over dinner at the Matina Enclave Residences in Davao City that he could not find any other better presidential candidate than his daughter.
Sara Duterte-Carpio already denied rumors of her running for a seat in the Senate. She said that being away from her children is the primary reason for her choice to not run for Senate.
“Hindi ko kaya iwanan ang mga anak ko. ‘Yun din ‘yung reason kung bakit hindi ako tatakbong senador. Kasi hindi ko, sorry, hindi talaga,” Duterte-Carpio told the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) in Hong Kong last February.
