(UPDATE) VICE President Sara Duterte on Wednesday announced her intention to run for president in 2028, beginning a 51-month journey to the highest office in the land despite the political challenges she is facing.
Her announcement, made at a press conference at the Office of the Vice President’s headquarters in Mandaluyong City, was direct and succinct.
“Ako si Sara Duterte, tatakbo bilang Pangulo ng Pilipinas (I am Sara Duterte, running for president of the Philippines),” Duterte, wearing a black polo shirt, said.
The announcement came following the filing of impeachment complaints against her at the House of Representatives.
It also comes just days before her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, begins a pretrial hearing at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands over crimes against humanity allegedly committed as part of a brutal crackdown on drugs.
In her speech, Duterte said she wants to bring back the “tapang at malasakit,” or “courage and compassion,” brand of leadership, harking back from the run of her father.
Duterte accused Marcos of corruption in her brief speech, saying he had failed to live up to his word during the short-lived alliance that saw them storm to a landslide victory in the 2022 presidential election.
“In the first few months of our terms, I already saw Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s lack of sincerity regarding the promises made during the campaign, as well as his sworn duty to the nation,” she said, using Marcos’ nickname.
“Because I did not want to be part of the 2025 national budget that is riddled with corruption, I left the Cabinet, even though I have known, since as far back as 2023, that the consequence of this would be my impeachment,” Duterte said.
She asked for forgiveness from her supporters for helping Marcos win the presidency, and for the problems that Filipinos are facing until now.
“Forgive me if the roads, bridges and projects that are funded by the public always break down. Forgive me if crime, illegal drugs and terrorism is (sic) inching closer to our doorsteps, and forgive me, if we don’t have a clear and real independent foreign policy that’s why we are being caught in the middle of the conflict between superpowers like China and the United States,” Duterte said.
She said politicians do not announce their intentions early so that they won’t be targeted by attacks, but she said that the Marcos administration has been destroying her for three years using “scripted” investigations in Congress in aid of legislation, the arrest of her father and the allegations against her that have always been repeated to make them look real.
“I’m afraid that one day, we’ll just accept being poor as our destiny. That we’ll get used to things being wrong. That we’ll lose hope. Most of all, I fear that one day, we won’t have a Philippines anymore to leave behind for our kids,” Duterte said.
She said that she cannot kneel before each and every Filipino to beg for forgiveness, but instead, she is offering her life, strength and her future in the service of the country.
Duterte’s announcement ended months of speculation about her political plans.
In her last interview before her announcement, she questioned whether there would be an election in 2028 as she believes by that time, there could be a “broken government.” “We are mired in trash, floods, our economic indicators and in corruption, we are down. No one is saying that the government is doing well. There are no development projects, nothing. So I am scared that one day, when we wake up, there is no more stable government and the nation is messy, assuming that we have a country in 2028,” Duterte said.
She also said that the impeachment cases filed against her are just a “scrap of paper,” noting that one of the cases filed against her was meant to harass her potential run as president.
Despite all these, Duterte remains a popular figure among the masses, with the latest Social Weather Stations Survey noting that 54 percent were satisfied with her performance as vice president.
Drawing a line
Michael Henry Yusingco, senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center, said the campaign announcement was a “big risk,” but that Duterte’s solid base of support in the family stronghold Mindanao gave her a real advantage.
“Conventional thinking would say she has the best chance of winning. Survey numbers are in her favor,” he said, while adding her father’s physical absence might discourage supporters.
Cleve Arguelles, president of WR Numero Research, suggested Duterte’s public declaration could be more about keeping allies in line at a time of political uncertainty.
“By projecting an inevitable 2028 run, she raises the perceived cost of defection — reminding politicians in Congress that her faction could still return to power,” he said.
The announcement was aimed at drawing “a clear line among those who are with her or against her, given the ICC and the impeachment [cases],” agreed Jean Franco, political science professor at the University of the Philippines.
Philippine presidents are limited to a single six-year term, which eliminates Marcos from the field.
Impeachment push
Yusingco added that the Marcos administration was now likely to become more openly hostile.
“Behind the scenes, they’ll probably push for her impeachment,” he said.
Duterte has seen the impeachment bid against her revived in recent weeks, with members of the Philippine clergy filing a case against her on Feb. 9, one of three logged within days.
Under the Constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the presidential race.
A pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, meanwhile, were recently tossed out by the House of Representatives justice committee, which said they lacked the necessary substance.
But Marcos is facing his own headwinds, with the archipelago nation roiling over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
The president has seen friend and foe alike, including a congressman cousin, swept up in the political firestorm since he first put the issue center stage in a July national address.
On Wednesday, Marcos spokeswoman Claire Castro told reporters Duterte should apologize for the “corruption and misuse of funds” cited in the impeachment complaints against her before attacking the president’s record.
“Good luck, that’s all we can say,” Castro said in a briefing.
“When the president said good luck, he smiled. So, I can’t tell if this is sarcastic or not,” she said.
The Palace official, however, asserted that Duterte must not take all the credit.
“She’s asking forgiveness for helping in the campaign? Remember, it was the people who elected President Marcos. Whatever help she gave, she must remember that they helped each other because they were under the UniTeam,” she said in Filipino.
The two former allies have been engaged in a high-stakes political brawl that erupted within weeks of their 2022 win in the presidential election, when the vice president was denied her favored Cabinet portfolios and instead named Education secretary.
The impeachment complaints filed against her cite an alleged death threat against Marcos made during a late-night press briefing that bore shades of her father’s famously scathing verbal style.
She would later say her comments were misinterpreted.
No surprise
Leaders of the opposition on Wednesday said they were not surprised by Duterte’s announcement.
Civic leader and “Silent Majority” founder and president Jozy Acosta-Nisperos said that it was expected, and that it should not affect the impeachment cases against her.
“The two are entirely separate things. However, it could tip the scales if some legislators see her as the candidate to beat and want to curry favor with her,” she said.
Acosta-Nisperos said the opposition needs to select a strong candidate for 2028.
Meanwhile, Trillion Pesos March organizer and Tindig Pilipinas co-convenor Kiko Aquino Dee was also unsurprised.
“Her announcement has no effect on the allegations and evidence already laid out in the impeachment complaints filed against her. The legislators in the House themselves would be in a better position to comment on any political implications,” he said.
“I’ve always believed that preparations for 2028 should be made under the assumption that VP Duterte will be running for president. The announcement doesn’t change that,” he added.
The Akbayan Party-list on Wednesday said the vice president’s announcement is “telling” and is a new excuse to distract and divert the attention of the public.
“No one is surprised... Time and again, we have said that seeking the presidency is one of her family’s paths to evade calls for justice and accountability, particularly for the alleged extrajudicial killings and plunder that they are accused of,” the opposition party said in a brief statement on Wednesday.
“Yet the timing of her announcement is telling. It comes just days before the House of Representatives is set to hold committee hearings on new impeachment complaints against her, and as the International Criminal Court prepares to examine charges against her father, Rodrigo Duterte,” they added.
“We urge the Filipino people not to be distracted or misled. The pursuit of truth, justice and accountability must not be overshadowed by the ambitions of the accused. Akbayan Party endorsed the impeachment complaints to ensure that all evidence is brought to light and that the nation can reach the truth,” Akbayan said.
Also, the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition said workers need more than just “apologies.” “With all due respect to VP Sara, if her endorsement was a ‘spectacular mistake,’ the public has every right to ask: how can we be sure we are not being asked to accept the same flawed or error judgment again — this time by endorsing herself as ‘presidential timber’ for 2028 as early as 2026?” Sonny Matula, the group’s chairman, said.
Mamamayang Liberal Rep. Leila de Lima was not surprised at Duterte’s announcement.
“It is her right to make a declaration even if it is very early. Just like the right of Filipinos to demand that she answer serious allegations of corruption and violation of the law — which has been our call since 2024,” de Lima said in Filipino and English in a video statement.
She said, “It is better if she faces and answers these first.” With three years remaining before the 2028 polls, the Senate’s initial reactions reveal both steadfast loyalty among Duterte allies and cautious recalibration among critics and potential contenders.
A staunch Duterte supporter, the president’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, said the vice president is the one who has solutions to the problems facing the country.
The senator said the vice president “simply embraced the call of her followers” to follow the footsteps of his father.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III was not surprised with the vice president’s move.
“It simply confirms what many knew all along. Although we still need to see by October of 2027 what transpires. I do not have a crystal ball,” Sotto said in a text message.
Reacting to the vice president’s announcement, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said, “As what our favorite philosophers say, ‘we have free-will.’ So, let’s use it.” Asked whether Vice President Sara’s political ambition in 2028 gave a clearer timeline for the united opposition, Hontiveros said, “We are in the process of setting our own timeline.” Another Duterte ally, Sen. Robinhood Padilla, openly endorsed a potential 2028 presidential tandem in which Imee Marcos would run as Sara Duterte’s vice president.
Padilla said that if he were to choose a running mate for Duterte in the 2028 national elections, his preference would be Marcos.
WITH ARIC JOHN SY CUA, REINA TOLENTINO, JAVIER JOE ISMAEL AND BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
