Hemming and hawing about what to do when his term ends in June 2022, President Rodrigo Duterte finally decided to file his candidacy for the Senate, the chamber he had been lambasting for months. He had been vacillating over two other choices — retirement or the vice presidency.
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Duterte chairs the fractious ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). Last Sept. 23, the party forged an alliance with Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS) for the 2022 elections.
The ruling pro-Duterte faction of the PDP-Laban originally wanted the president to run as the vice-presidential (VP) running mate of his longtime aide-turned-senator Christopher “Bong” Go. Duterte, in fact, accepted the nomination on Sept. 22, according to Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, president of the party’s pro-Duterte faction.
The other faction is headed by Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, also running for president in 2022 under the Progressive Movement for the Devolution of Initiatives or Probinsya Muna Development Initiative (Promdi), and Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel Jr.
Despite Duterte’s announcement of his retirement on Oct. 2, Cusi announced on Oct. 27 that his faction is urging the president to consider running for senator instead. Both Duterte and Go, who are top-ranking officials in PDP-Laban, are running under a different party, the PDDS, for senator and president, respectively.
This is not the first time Duterte pulled a surprise substitution. He flip-flopped on his candidacy in the 2016 presidential elections, initially turning down calls for him to run for president and eventually ended up substituting for Martin Dino, a former barangay chairman who turned out to be a placeholder of PDP-Laban for the then-mayor of Davao City.
Duterte has either offered or threatened to resign as president at least 22 times, as of the last count in July 2019, for various reasons, including being tired and in reaction to accusations of corruption and incompetence. (See VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Duterte’s thoughts of resignation)
Editor’s note: This article was updated to include the video fact-check.
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