Actually, Rodrigo Duterte wanted to continue his “crusade” against drug traffickers and insurgents in 2022 as Vice President of the Philippines. Now the right-wing populist head of government of the island state has surprisingly announced his withdrawal from politics.
The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has surprisingly announced his retirement from politics. Duterte said on Saturday that he would not run for the office of vice president in the 2022 election, as this would be a “violation of the constitution”. The move could pave the way for his daughter Sara to run for president. The right-wing populist president has been criticized internationally for serious human rights violations, particularly in connection with his anti-drug fight.
Possible successor: Duterte’s daughter
“The prevailing feeling” in the population is that if he ran for office in 2022, “the law, the spirit of the constitution, would be circumvented,” the 76-year-old now said. “Today I announce my withdrawal from politics.”
According to the constitution, the president is only allowed to govern one term in the Philippines. Duterte had therefore announced in August that he would apply for the second highest office in the Southeast Asian island state in order to be able to continue the internationally sharply criticized “crusade” against drug traffickers and insurgents that he himself had proclaimed.
Duterte’s daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio is a possible candidate for the election in May. According to opinion polls, it is ahead of the polls. However, the mayor of Davao, in the south of the country, has said that she would not run if her father ran for the vice presidency. Instead, the President’s close adviser, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, registered as a candidate for Vice President.
Duterte-Carpio belongs to a different party than her father. On Saturday, according to state media, she registered for a third term as mayor of the city that her father had ruled.
The other candidates: an ex-boxer, the son of the former dictator and a former actor
The President and Vice President are elected separately in the Philippines. If the president dies, becomes incapacitated or resigns during his term of office, his deputy takes over the office. The deadline for registering as a candidate expires on October 8th, but applicants can still be registered until November 15th.
Candidates for the presidency include boxing star and Senator Manny Pacquiao, who recently retired from the boxing ring. Other candidates are Duterte’s ally Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, son and namesake of the country’s former dictator, and the former actor and mayor Francisco Domagoso, known by his stage name Isko Moreno.
Merciless hunt for drug scene – tens of thousands dead
During his tenure, the authoritarian ruling Duterte launched a merciless hunt for drug users and traffickers that killed tens of thousands of people, according to human rights groups. Critics of the campaign ended up behind bars. The International Criminal Court (ICC) wants to launch a comprehensive investigation into the murders. Analysts believe Duterte-Carpio would protect her father from prosecution if she were elected president.
The right-wing populist Duterte, who not only attracted attention since he took office in 2016 with insults and hate speech against homosexuals, women, opposition figures and international officials such as the former US President Barack Obama or the Pope, was most recently in the country because of his actions in the corona pandemic Criticism advised. The country plunged into the worst economic crisis in decades, thousands of people died, millions lost their jobs, and the vaccination campaign made no progress.
Observers don’t trust Duterte’s retreat
Nevertheless, the president continues to enjoy great popularity in the country. However, a recent poll by the polling institute Social Weather Stations found that 60 percent of Filipinos disagree that Duterte’s candidacy for the vice presidency is within the meaning of the constitution. “He must have realized that, given the latest poll results, they could lose if both Dutertes are listed as candidates for 2022,” Jean Franco, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, told AFP.
However, observers are skeptical whether the 76-year-old will actually withdraw completely from politics. “Duterte is a person whose word is difficult to rely on,” said analyst Richard Heydarian of the AFP.
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