Pondering Sara Duterte’s presidency

Pondering Sara Duterte’s presidency | Daily Tribune

She has declared that she is casting her hat into the presidential race and that she has already picked her running mate. This announcement by Vice President Sara Duterte can be seen as a sequel to a telenovela where the lead character, having survived impeachment through a technicality and weathered a storm of corruption allegations, is positioning herself not as a candidate of vision, but of obstinate endurance.

Between now and 2028, the Filipino people can expect a prolonged electoral campaign defined not by a clash of policy platforms, but by the gravitational pull of dynastic politics and the spectacle of a candidate attempting to parlay notoriety into legitimacy.

The critical questions, however, lie beyond the campaign trail: what are the implications of a presidency built on a foundation of serious doubts about a candidate’s character, intellect, and suitability for the office she wants to ascend to?

The immediate future will be dominated by the “sword of Damocles:” the impeachment bid looming in 2026. While the Supreme Court dismissed the 2025 complaint on the one-year rule technicality, new complaints have been refiled, reviving issues like the misuse of P612 million in confidential funds and the bizarre “Mary Grace Piattos” et al. controversy.

Recent developments, however, suggest that even the sword may be blunted by political convenience. The National Unity Party, a major bloc in the House of Representatives, has signaled that it is unlikely to support an impeachment barring “compelling new evidence,” indicating a waning political will to unseat her.

Whether she survives the 2026 impeachment attempt will depend less on the merits of the evidence and more on the cold calculations of congressmen who must weigh her enduring popularity against their alliances with the Marcos administration.

If she survives — and recent history suggests she might — she will enter the 2028 race not cleared of suspicion, but immunized by the system’s inability to hold her accountable.

If Sara Duterte wins the presidency in 2028, the Philippines would enter an era defined by the consolidation of a “purest, most undiluted” dynastic rule. Her platform, as articulated in her announcement, will focus on grievances against the current administration rather than on a concrete legislative agenda.

A Duterte presidency would likely mean a continuation of the strongman archetype established by her father, but perhaps without the same executive decisiveness.

Recall how her tenure as Vice President and Education Secretary had been marked by absenteeism and a refusal to engage in the substance of governance, as seen when she dodged questions during congressional hearings on her confidential fund utilization.

Translating this disposition to the highest office would mean a leadership style that views accountability as a political attack and transparency as an optional inconvenience.

The implications of a candidate plagued by doubts about her character and intellect extend beyond administrative competence; they threaten to further erode the quality of Philippine democracy.

When a candidate survives — and is even celebrated — despite scandals that would sideline politicians in a sane system, it sends a perverse signal: that survival itself is a qualification.

This lowers the bar for public office, normalizing the idea that the presidency is an entitlement of a family name rather than a position demanding the highest levels of integrity and cognitive rigor.

As political analysts note, a second Duterte presidency could also reverse Manila’s foreign policy, pivoting away from Washington and toward Beijing, a geopolitical shift of immense consequence that would be decided by a leader whose decision-making process remains largely opaque.

Ultimately, the period between now and 2028 will be a referendum on whether the Philippines has learned anything from its recent political traumas.

If Sara Duterte ascends to Malacañang, the country will not just be getting a president, it will be getting the sum of all the questions she refused to answer, all the allegations she swept under the carpet, and all the institutional norms she bypassed.

It would be a presidency born not of the people’s highest hopes, but of their resigned acceptance of the familiar — a toddler with a hammer, entrusted with the most powerful office in the land.