Duterte-Duterte for 2022 “the apogee of the political dynasty”: Carpio

MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte “anointing” his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, mayor of Davao city, as his successor is the “top of the political dynasty,” the 1Sambayan opposition coalition said Wednesday.

Part of the reason the coalition was formed was because of the possible father-daughter tandem in next year’s polls, an organizer said earlier.

The coalition must take a “strong position” as the president brings his political dynasty to the national level, said its president, former senior deputy judge Antonio Carpio.

“A president anointing his own daughter as his successor, I think this is the pinnacle of political dynasty,” he told ANC Headstart.

“The Constitution says political dynasties must be restricted according to the law. The only problem is that Congress did not enact the law. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Carpio denied Duterte-Carpio’s claim that the coalition was “authoritarian” because it rejects “so many people who disagree with them”.

“We have made our position clear. We are against extrajudicial killings, against human rights violations, we are against political dynasties and all of this can be attributed to the president,” he said.

“We talked to everyone who might be a potential candidate by our qualifying standards. We talked to everyone from legal left to legal right… and everyone in between. I think that it is the largest coalition that has been formed for a very long time. “

The coalition cannot present Senator Manny Pacquiao as one of its candidates because he was not qualified, Carpio said.

“As a congressman, Pacquiao was the number one absentee. He was the best in terms of absences from Congress. As a senator, he was again number 1 in terms of absences. so is not there, ”he said.

“Manny Pacquiao may have a good heart, but running the country of 100 million people takes skill … We can’t have an absent president.”