It must have been hard for Vice President-elect Sara Duterte to be her father’s daughter. As perhaps the country’s most popular president in modern times, outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte has enjoyed immense support but also unimaginable criticism from the people.
In the middle of all that are his children—Paolo, Sara, Sebastian or Baste, and Veronica or Kitty. Sara, in particular, was anointed to follow in the pathways of her father’s successful run in national politics.
In the September 2021 Ulat ng Bayan National Survey by Pulse Asia, 20 percent of Filipinos said they would support Sara Duterte if she decides to run for president. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., her running mate in the recently held polls, was only at 15 percent.
When Duterte decided to seek the vice presidency to meet her supporters “halfway” and support Marcos’ presidential bid, her father was reportedly infuriated.
After all, he asked, why would his daughter would take a step down and run for vice president only when she was topping all known surveys?
READ: Duterte reveals he’s 'clueless' on why Sara settled for VP post, says 'We don't even talk'
The Vice-President-elect, who is the first female mayor and the youngest Davao City mayor, said this was one of the reasons she trusts Marcos.
“Para sa akin (For me), it’s based on mutual trust kasi iilan lang iyong naniwala ng sinabi ko na hindi ako tatakbong pangulo (because not many believe when I said I won’t run as president) and isa si among BBM ang naniwala sa akin (among BBM was one of those who trusted me),” she shared in one of Marcos’ vlogs.
By November and until they won as a tandem, Marcos and Duterte consistently topped surveys, with the latter gathering half a million more votes than the President-elect in the final tally of votes.
Road to the vice presidency
Duterte’s path wasn’t always clear. She took up respiratory therapy as a pre-medical degree course since she initially wanted to be a doctor.
This was something that ate her up during the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
“It was so frustrating for me as a healthcare–background ko, allied medical professional background ko (my background is that of an allied medical professional), it was so frustrating for me na yung wala ako doon sa frontlines (that I wasn’t there at the frontlines),” she said to 500 nurses and frontliners during a speaking engagement in April.
Even while she was waiting to pass the bar exam, she was already thinking of going back to medical school, Duterte revealed.
Unfortunately, most of her family and friends were adamant that she stay clear of the medical field.
In 2013, when she took a break from politics to focus on her children, she thought of going back to medical school but she did not receive support from her family and friends once more.
Her path in politics was made clearer when her father infamously decided to run in 2015. While she was initially against the idea, but Duterte said she came around and stood by her father.
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She won in 2016 as mayor and in 2019 took her youngest brother, Baste, as vice mayor.
Baste took over the mayoralty candidacy of Duterte when she ran as vice president, with Paolo as Davao City first district representative.
The Duterte name will remain both in the national and local politics.
Making a name for herself
Duterte first rose to national prominence when she punched a Davao City sheriff three times during a demolition work in Barangay Soliman in Davao’s Agdao district.
The sheriff said he was just implementing a court order to demolish the residential area, but the mayor threw in two more punches on his face after initially punching him once.
She was also photographed pulling the sheriff by his collar.
Duterte had to face administrative and criminal complaints because of the incident, but she maintained that she was ready to “face the consequences.”
During her first time as mayor, then President Benigno S. Aquino III asked her to serve as chairperson of the Regional Development Council and chairman of the Board-Regional Development Committee-Mindanao Area Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
Under her watch, Davao became the eighth richest city in the country in 2020 and the fourth most urbanized city by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2021.
What the future holds
On Sunday, June 19, Duterte will take her oath of office before Supreme Court Justice Ramon Paul Hernando, a close friend of hers, at the San Pedro Square in downtown Davao City.
READ: VP-elect Sara Duterte bares highlights of June 19 oath-taking in Davao City
She won with an overwhelmingly 32.2 million votes during the recently held 2022 elections, beating national politics veterans Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
President Duterte will be at the inauguration, which was held almost two weeks earlier than that of President-elect Marcos’ on June 30.
Aside from being vice president, Duterte will be the incoming Secretary of Education and is expected to address the country’s education crisis and low reading and math level skills.
Controversially, she wants to make military service mandatory for Filipinos once they turn 18 years old.
The #MarcosCabinet: Sara Duterte, DepEd secretary
She also run under the platform of changing the system of government to federalism—a proposal that his father has also made—and improving the country’s healthcare system and disaster preparedness.
As her father prepares for retirement and a life away from politics, this will be the first time Duterte will hold power away from her father’s shadow.
If her past political decisions are any indication, which included reportedly removing key officials of her father from the Davao City Hall, the younger Duterte is set to trailblaze a path and create a political career that defines her determination to be her own person.
