Tough-talking Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has confirmed rumblings that he will run next year for vice president, in what critics say is an attempt at an end-run around constitutional term limits. The 76-year-old, who is notorious for his crackdown on illegal drugs that has killed thousands of mostly petty suspects, said in comments broadcast Wednesday that he will run for vice president to "continue the crusade," the AP reports. "I’m worried about the drugs, insurgency. Well, number one is insurgency, then criminality, drugs," he said. Polls suggest that running Duterte in tandem with his daughter, Sara Duterte, currently the mayor of Davao City, as the presidential candidate would be a strong pairing, says Manila-based political analyst Richard Heydarian.
The idea of the two running together has been discussed since 2019, though Duterte advisers have reportedly said that he has suggested he might not run for vice president if his daughter decides to announce a bid for president. Further muddying the waters, however, Sara Duterte posted on Facebook later Wednesday that her father had told her he would run for vice president with his former aide, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, running for president. She did not address her own aspirations, but said her father and Go should announce publicly that they would run together if they have made that decision. "I respectfully advise them to stop talking about me and make me the reason for them running or not running,” she wrote. Philippine presidents are limited by the 1987 Constitution to a single six-year term.
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