MANILA: The daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday removed herself from the running for mayor of Davao City, just days away from a deadline to change candidates for a presidential election next year.
Sara Duterte-Carpio, who has been widely tipped to run to succeed her father, did not say why she was withdrawing from the mayor contest, but told supporters on Facebook that further announcements would be made later.
The 43-year-old has come top in opinion polls throughout this year on preferred candidates for president, but has said she does not want that job.
The Philippines holds elections in May 2022 for positions from the level of president down to governors, mayors and local officials. The window for changing candidates expires on Nov. 15.
“This afternoon I am withdrawing my candidacy for mayor of Davao City,” she said, announcing her brother Sebastian, her vice mayor, will run instead.
Duterte-Carpio has repeatedly said was not interested in running for president, but recently expressed willingness to forge an alliance with another presidential candidate, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, the controversial son and namesake of the late dictator who was overthrown in 1986.
Marcos’ supporters have urged Duterte-Carpio to be his running mate. The Marcos family has for decades been among the Philippines’ most powerful political families.
President Duterte, 76, is unable to seek a second term in office, which is forbidden under the constitution, and says he plans to retire.
His daughter is hugely popular and the family enjoys considerable political clout in the south of the country, having run Davao for more about three decades.
Other candidates for the presidency include senator and retired boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, former actor and Manila mayor Francisco Domagoso, incumbent Vice President Leni Robredo, Senator Panfilo Lacson, and Marcos.
Philippine presidential daughter Sara Duterte quits mayoral race as election deadline looms
https://arab.news/47ymm
Philippine presidential daughter Sara Duterte quits mayoral race as election deadline looms
- Sara Duterte-Carpio, who has been widely tipped to run to succeed her father, did not say why she was withdrawing from the mayor contest
Archbishop of York says he was ‘intimidated’ by Israeli militias during West Bank visit
- “We were … intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the archbishop said
LONDON: The Archbishop of York has revealed that he felt “intimidated” by Israeli militias during a visit to the Holy Land this year.
“We were stopped at various checkpoints and intimidated by Israeli militias who told us that we couldn’t visit Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank,” the Rev. Stephen Cottrell told his Christmas Day congregation at York Minster.
The archbishop added: “We have become — and really, I can think of no other way of putting it — we have become fearful of each other, and especially fearful of strangers, or just people who aren’t quite like us.
“We don’t seem to be able to see ourselves in them, and therefore we spurn our common humanity.”
He recounted how YMCA charity representatives in Bethlehem, who work with persecuted Palestinian communities in the West Bank, gave him an olive wood Nativity scene carving.
The carving depicted a “large gray wall” blocking the three kings from getting to the stable to see Mary, Joseph and Jesus, he said.
He said it was sobering for him to see the wall in real life during his visit.
He continued: “But this Christmas morning here in York, as well as thinking about the walls that divide and separate the Holy Land, I’m also thinking of all the walls and barriers we erect across the whole of the world and, perhaps most alarming, the ones we build around ourselves, the ones we construct in our hearts and minds, and of how our fearful shielding of ourselves from strangers — the strangers we encounter in the homeless on our streets, refugees seeking asylum, young people starved of opportunity and growing up without hope for the future — means that we are in danger of failing to welcome Christ when he comes.”
