Duterte: Mayor Sara won’t seek national post

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday said his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, is not keen on seeking a national post.

Sara Duterte has yet to make a final announcement on her political plans even as she landed on third to fifth place in the Pulse Asia survey in June among possible contenders for the 12 Senate seats up for grabs in the 2019 midterm elections.

“Ang anak ko, si Inday, I can tell you I know her. Hindi magtatakbo ‘yan ng national,” the President said in a speech during the 68th National Security Council and 69th National Intelligence Coordinating Agency founding anniversary celebration in Pasay City.

Sara Duterte is now on her second term as mayor of Davao City, where the President ruled for over two decades before he became the country’s chief executive in 2016.

Duterte issued the remark after he affirmed his support to the proposal to ban political dynasties.

Congress, many members of which are scions of political families, has yet to give teeth to the provision in the 1987 Constitution that prohibits the proliferation of political dynasties.

The administration’s proposed federal charter, meanwhile, offers a self-executing anti-dynasty provision. 

"The Federal Republic shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties to prevent the concentration, consolidation, or perpetuation of political power in persons related to one another," stated the provision crafted by Duterte’s Consultative Committee that reviewed the 1987 charter.

It also said that a political dynasty exists when 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."

The proposed provision prohibits a person related to an incumbent elective official within the second civil degree of consanguinity, as described, from seeking the same position in the immediately following election.

"However, in the event that two or more members of the same family are running, the member who shall be allowed to be a candidate shall be determined by the drawing of lots,” it said.

Backed by Duterte, the draft will go through scrutiny and possible revisions in Congress, acting as a constituent assembly, before it is presented for ratification through a plebiscite.

The Duterte administration aims to synchronize the plebiscite with next year's midterm elections. —KG, GMA News