Albay Representative Joey Salceda on Wednesday claimed that Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will likely run for the presidency under the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party.
The presidential daughter announced on Tuesday the withdrawal of her reelection bid and said she will be endorsing her brother Vice Mayor Sebastian 'Baste' Duterte to be her successor.
According to Salceda, running for vice president is not an option for Duterte-Carpio.
"There’s no VP option for her and picking a VP for her is not a problem," Salceda said in an interview with another media outlet.
He also dismissed rumors that Duterte-Carpio would be running alongside former senator and presidential candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos as speculations.
"Definitely that’s speculation because she’s running for president. All these political gyrations just shows she’s going toward the presidency," Salceda said.
It can be recalled that Sara and Bongbong met in Cebu last month, but the mayor denied discussing plans on a national level.
"What we talked about is how HNP (Hugpong ng Pagbabago) in [the] Davao Region can help his bid for the presidency," the mayor said.
When asked by reporters if she had plans to run for president via substitution, Duterte once again denied that she would run.
Not under PDP-Laban
For Salceda, Mayor Sara will likely not run under the PDP-Laban, a ruling party led by his father President Rodrigo Duterte, since there were still issues on which of its factions are "legitimate."
"Sa tingin niya sa PDP-Laban, mukhang hindi sa PDP-Laban eh. Ano ba sabi niya sa akin, malakas ang possibility sa Lakas. May gulo pa kasi sa Comelec ang PDP kaya obviously hindi siya roon," Salceda said in a press briefing on Wednesday.
Lakas-CMD has yet to comment on the said matter. But in the past, the ruling party's secretary-general Prospero Pichay admitted fielding their members for both presidential and vice-presidential posts.
Earlier, Commission on Elections (Comelec) spokesman James Jimenez said Duterte-Carpio can run for a national post in the upcoming 2022 polls but not under her regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).
According to Jimenez, the presidential daughter must be a member of the same political party as the person she will substitute for in order to be eligible for a national candidacy.
In a separate statement, PDP-Laban president and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the ruling party "watches with keen interest" the developments on Sara's next move following her withdrawal from her reelection bid.
"In any event, her actions, including any decision to run for a national elective office, will most certainly affect the political landscape," Cusi said.
Sen. Ronald 'Bato' Dela Rosa and Christopher 'Bong' Go are the standard-bearers of the party for the presidential-vice presidential posts.
The deadline for substitution for party candidates is until Monday, November 15.
