Philippine VP Sara Duterte announces run for president in 2028

Announcement follows multiple impeachment complaints against the vice president over allegations of corruption.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte has said she intends to run for president in the upcoming 2028 election, following in the footsteps of her notorious father, ex-President Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently on trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

“It took me 47 years to understand that my life was never meant to be only mine,” Sara Duterte said on Wednesday.

“For a long time, I questioned the weight of responsibility to my family, to my country, to everyone who called on me,” Duterte said in a livestreamed address.

“I am Sara Duterte, and I am running for president in the Philippines,” she said.

Duterte also asked her followers for their “forgiveness” over her previous support for incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr during the last presidential election.

The Philippines continues to struggle with rampant problems, from corruption to poverty and a cost-of-living crisis, she said.

“I cannot kneel before each and every Filipino to beg for forgiveness. Instead, I offer my life, my strength, and my future in the service of our nation,” she added.

Despite throwing her support behind Marcos’s election bid five years ago, Duterte and the president have since become bitter rivals, particularly following the launch of a corruption inquiry in 2024 into Duterte’s misuse of government funds.

Their relationship then soured further last year when Marcos signed off on the arrest of her father by the Philippine National Police and Interpol, acting on behalf of the ICC.

Duterte’s candidacy announcement comes during a difficult week for the vice president and her family. She is facing multiple impeachment complaints in the House of Representatives for alleged corruption and making a death threat against President Marcos.

Her father is also due to receive the confirmation of charges against him in The Hague, where he is accused of committing crimes against humanity as part of his so-called “war on drugs” while president of the Philippines between 2016 and 2022.

Cleve Arguelles, political scientist and CEO of the public opinion company WR Numero Research, said her father’s trial in The Hague has raised the stakes for the vice president and her family.

Arguelles said the announcement was likely designed to “freeze panic inside” her political faction “before it prematurely unravels”.

“When legal risk rises, so does the temptation to defect early to save one’s own skin,” Arguelles said.

“When the boat starts taking in water, some passengers look for lifeboats; others start pushing people overboard,” he said.