Presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will carry the “baggage” left by her father, President Duterte, if she decides to run as president in 2022, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said on Monday, June 7.
Duterte-Carpio will need to face the public and explain “what happened during the past six years” of her father, the former senator said during his interview with ABS-CBN’s “After the Fact.”
He contradicted the claim that the tandem of Duterte-Carpio and former Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro, which former Camarines Sur 1st District representative Rolando Andaya Jr. is pushing for, is the “gold standard” for a presidential and vice-presidential ticket.
READ: Gibo resurfaces in Davao City: "Sara Duterte and somebody else" tandem for 2022?
“But right now, I believe what’s going for us is the situation right now is not pretty or not pleasant at all. And that’s going to be a baggage that would be carried by Sara Duterte if she runs. She is going to explain what happened during the past six years of Duterte,” Trillanes said.
Duterte-Carpio cannot remove herself from her father’s shadow, he added, because they carry the same surname and she is “a political creation of the father.”
“There would not be any Sara Duterte without Rodrigo Duterte, especially at the national level. She has yet to expose herself under (the) close scrutiny of the national limelight. She would have to carry that,” the former senator-turned-professor stressed.
Although Duterte’s supporters will say that the Philippines “had six glorious years,” Trillanes said it is up “to the people to discern which one is the reality.”
The presidential daughter has been consistently topping pre-election surveys among the preferred presidential candidates in the May 2022 polls.
But Duterte-Carpio hasn’t announced her political plans for next year, although she repeatedly said in the past that she does not intend to run as president.
READ: Sara Duterte still undecided on 2022 presidential run, says Roque
However, during her birthday last week, she received several politicians who might be her her running mate. Among them were former senator Bongbong Marcos and his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, and Teodoro.