Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, the daughter of jailed former leader Rodrigo Duterte, has announced that she will run for president in the country’s 2028 elections.
Sarah Duterte, 47, said she would give her “life, strength and future” in the service of the Philippines, accusing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of presiding over a period marked by rampant corruption in a speech on Wednesday.
Sara Duterte once allied with Marcos Jr. and ran with him on a joint ticket in the 2022 elections, where they won by a landslide. However, she resigned from the cabinet after two years due to a heated argument between the two politicians.
Relations between them hit rock bottom last year after Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila and dramatically flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC). At the time, Sarah Duterte condemned his arrest as “repression and torture.”
Rodrigo Duterte will appear in a pre-trial hearing before the ICC next week. The case relates to murders committed during his anti-drug “cranking” campaign, where thousands of people were gunned down in the streets, many of them poor, urban men.
Duterte said after the arrest that he would take responsibility for the crackdown. In 2024, he told a Senate inquiry into the killings that he made “no apologies, no excuses” for his actions: “I did what I had to do, and believe it or not, I did it for my country.”
In her speech on Wednesday, Sara Duterte apologized for running alongside her once-ally-turned-foe Marcos, saying she once helped his election bid.
“I am sorry if our institutions are being grossly misused by politicians for their personal interests. I am sorry that the prices of essential commodities are not enough for every family. I am sorry that we do not even have real food security. I am sorry that some people are falling ill and losing their lives,” she said.
Polls indicate that Sara Duterte is a strong contender in future elections. Her father, despite international condemnation of his so-called “war on drugs”, styles himself as a straight-talking everyman.
Sarah Duterte is also facing legal problems. Impeachment cases have recently been filed against her, including a group of nuns, priests and lawyers, alleging misappropriation of funds during her tenure as vice president and her former education secretary. She was also accused of threatening to assassinate President Marcos. She has denied such allegations in the past.
Sara Duterte was impeached last year, but the country’s Supreme Court later dismissed the case on procedural issues.
Like her father, Sara Duterte is known for her outspokenness. She once threatened to dig up the remains of Marcos’ dictator father and throw them into the sea.
Explaining her decision to run for president on Wednesday, she said, “It took me 47 years to understand that my life was never mine, that unlike others, I may not have been born for happiness. For a long time I questioned how much responsibility I had to my family, to my country, to everyone who called me.”
President Marcos cannot seek re-election as he is constitutionally limited to a single six-year term. He has faced increased pressure over a corruption scandal in which billions of dollars were allegedly misappropriated on bogus flood relief projects. Marcos assured that corruption will not be tolerated and those who misappropriated funds should be jailed.
