Possible Duterte-Duterte tandem in Eleksyon 2022 not a political dynasty —HNP exec

An official of Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) party on Wednesday claimed there will be no political dynasty if Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, will both run for national posts next year.

In an online press briefing, Anthony del Rosario, secretary general of Sara's provincial party HNP, said as long as there is an electoral process, people are free to vote "whoever they want."

"Here in HNP, we don't believe there's political dynasty here. After all this is an electoral process and everybody's free to vote for whoever candidate they prefer to vote for," said del Rosario, partly in Filipino, when asked about critics' fear that political dynasty will occur if both Dutertes ran for the two highest government posts in the country next year.

When pressed if there is a political dynasty if Sara succeeds his father, the HNP official again denied this, saying that "each candidate is voted separately" during the national elections.

"Each candidate is voted separately. If President Digong showed good governance in his term of president as the country, it follows that a lot of people would like to see this kind of governance to continue on," del Rosario further said, partly in Filipino.

"For as long people are allowed to exercise their right to vote, for as long there as no duress when it comes to voting, I don't see why it should be a political dynasty," he added.

Sara and Duterte recently topped the June 2021 Pulse Asia survey on possible candidadates in the 2022 national elections. The survey said if the 2022 elections happened in June 2021, Sara is the most preferred candidate for president while Duterte for vice president.

Opposition Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan, who heads the Liberal Party, had said making Sara the successor of Duterte is "clearly political dynasty."

Last week, Sara Duterte said she is open to running for president, although her father has insisted that she should not.

Pulse Asia also said in a previous interview that there is no big opposition to political dynasties or political families among Filipinos. —KBK, GMA News