Sara Duterte: Ma prefers Baste in nat’l post, me back to Davao

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte told journalists here on Tuesday that her mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman, had advised her to “come home” and leave national politics to her brother, Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, the city’s incumbent mayor.

Duterte made this revelation at a press conference where she also denied accusations that she received money stuffed in suitcases from dismissed policeman Rodulfo Gracioso Jr.

“I think I’ve said this publicly before, maybe in an interview or a speech, that my mother wanted me to come home to Davao and just let Baste run in the national elections,” she said. “That’s all that we’ve discussed in the family. Well, not really discussed: my mother said ‘you come home here in Davao and leave national (politics) to Baste.’”

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Not inclined to follow

The Vice President, who in February announced her intention to run for president in 2028, was asked for comment regarding suggestions that her younger brother take the cudgels for her as her ongoing impeachment trial raise questions over her viability as a Palace contender.

A conviction in the impeachment trial would bar her from seeking public office.

But the Vice President also said she was not inclined to follow her mother’s wishes, and that she won’t be coming home to Davao anytime soon due to her work as Vice President.

Duterte said she and Baste had not yet discussed the possibility of him running for president.

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The incumbent Davao City mayor currently leads the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, the political party that carried his father’s presidential bid in 2016.

Baste made headlines last week when he appeared as a “hostile witness” in his sister’s trial, where he was questioned by the prosecution regarding Davao City Hall’s P34-million contracts with GenCorp., a food and catering company being linked to the Vice President. /cb