Will Duterte’s one-two punch knock out Manny Pacquiao from Philippine election?
- Rodrigo Duterte’s allies are eyeing a way for him to govern beyond one term by running as a vice-presidential candidate and ousting Pacquiao as party president
- Sara Duterte has been floated as a possible presidential contender, but health woes could prevent her from fighting off the popular boxer and other rivals
Duterte’s palace aides have hatched a complicated plan for the highly popular leader to run as the vice-presidential candidate of the ruling PDP-Laban Party and give him “the leeway” to choose his presidential running mate.
The aides have also specified that the running mate should be presidential daughter Sara, which would in effect enable Duterte – should the father-daughter team win next year – have a surrogate presidency through 43-year-old Sara.
“We believe that as vice-president, he can also be able to continue those reforms and continue on what he has started in his capacity as vice-president,” Duterte’s close aide Karlo Nograles, who sits as a member of PDP-Laban’s National Council, said in an ABS-CBN interview on Tuesday.
He said this even though a Philippine vice-president has constitutionally no role except as a successor and requiring the president to put his running mate in the Cabinet is tantamount to imposing a condition.