Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte, daughter of the imprisoned former leader Rodridgo Duterte, has announced she will run for president in the country’s 2028 election.
Sara Duterte, 47, said she would offer her “life, strength and future” in service of the Philippines, in a speech on Wednesday that accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of presiding over a period marked by rampant corruption.
Sara Duterte was once allied with Marcos Jr, and ran on a joint ticket with him in the 2022 election, where they won a landslide victory. However, she resigned from the cabinet two years later, after the two politicians became embroiled in a bitter feud.
Relations between them reached 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, Sara Duterte condemned his arrest as “oppression and persecution”.
Rodrigo Duterte will appear before the ICC next week for a pre-trial hearing. The case relates to killings committed during his anti-drugs “crackdowns”, where thousands of people were gunned down in the streets, many of them men in poor, urban areas.
Duterte said after his arrest that he would accept responsibility for the crackdowns. In 2024, he told a senate inquiry into the killings that he offered “no apologies, no excuses” for his policies, saying: “I did what I had to do, and whether you believe it or not, I did it for my country.”
In her speech on Wednesday, Sara Duterte apologised for once running in tandem with Marcos, her ally-turned-nemesis, saying she was sorry she had once helped his election bid.
“I am sorry if there is blatant abuse of our institutions for the personal interests of politicians. I am sorry that the prices of basic goods continue to rise while the income of every family remains insufficient. I am sorry that we do not even have genuine food security. I am sorry that some are falling ill and losing their lives because of the lack of a proper and effective healthcare system,” she said in a press briefing.
Polls suggests Sara Duterte would be a strong contender in a future election. Her father, who styled himself as a straight-talking everyman, remained popular throughout his presidency, despite international condemnation over his so-called “war on drugs”.
Sara Duterte is also facing legal troubles. Impeachment cases have been filed against her, including most recently by a group of nuns, priests, and lawyers, accusing her of misuse of funds as vice-president and when she was previously education secretary. She has also been accused of threatening to assassinate president Marcos. She has previously denied such allegations.
Sara Duterte was impeached last year, though the case was later thrown out by the country’s supreme court over procedural issues.
Like her father, Sara Duterte has been known for her extreme rhetoric. She once threatened to dig up the remains of Marcos’ dictator father and throw them into the sea.
Speaking on Wednesday she explained her decision to run for the presidency, saying: “It took me 47 years to understand that my life was never meant to be only mine. Unlike others, I may not have been born just to chase happiness. For a long time I questioned the weight of responsibility to my family, to my country, to everyone who called upon me. Today, I have peacefully accepted that my life is unlike any other.”
President Marcos cannot seek re-election because he is limited to a single six-year term under the constitution. He has faced increased pressure over a corruption scandal, after it emerged billions of dollars had allegedly been misspent on bogus flood relief projects. Marcos has pledged zero tolerance for corruption and said those found to have misused funds will face jail.
