Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announces his candidacy for Mayor of Davao

MADRID 7 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) returns to politics after formalizing this Monday his candidacy for the Mayor of Davao for the May 2025 elections, thus forcing his son Sebastian to give up his re-election aspirations and settle for present himself as a running mate.

Duterte thus puts an end to months of speculation about his hypothetical return to the country’s political life after a term as president marked by his controversial fight against drugs, marked by numerous allegations of abuse, Philippine media report.

This Monday he presented the necessary credentials to present himself as a candidate to the electoral commission, one day before the deadline. If he wins, he would be in charge of this city located in the south of the archipelago and the third most populated in the Philippines until 2028, by which time he will be 82 years old.

His son Sebastian will finally go to the polls as a running mate, after there was speculation that he would present his candidacy as senator in elections, in addition to local ones, in which the 318 seats in the House of Representatives are also disputed and twelve of the 24 in the Senate.

Davao is not a place that is foreign to the Dutertes, the patriarch of the clan already served as mayor and vice mayor almost uninterruptedly since 1988, with several of his children in positions of responsibility, until in 2016 he was elected president of the Philippines thanks to the power he consolidated in this city.

Many now see an attempt by the Dutertes to regain the weight they have been losing after the alliance with the Marcos collapsed. Amid rumors of the removal of Sara Duterte as vice president of the Philippines, the 2025 elections are presented as a battle for the survival of the family clan.

The rift between both families worsened earlier this year after there was speculation that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. favored the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the country’s own Congress to investigate Duterte for his controversial plan against drugs, which has left some 12,000 dead.