In this Philippine name for married women, the birth middle name or maternal family name is Zimmerman, the birth surname or paternal family name is Duterte, and the marital name is Carpio.
Sara Duterte-Carpio (also known as Inday Sara by the Davaoeños; born Sara Zimmerman Duterte on May 31, 1978) is a Filipina lawyer, politician and the incumbent Mayor of Davao City. She also served as the city mayor from June 30, 2010 until June 30, 2013. Prior to her mayoral term, she has also served as vice mayor of Davao City from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2010. She is also the daughter of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.
Political career
City Mayor of Davao[edit]
Duterte-Carpio is Davao City's first woman mayor and the youngest to have been elected to the position in the political history of Davao City after she switched roles with her father Rodrigo "Rody" Duterte in 2010-2013 as mayor and vice-mayor, respectively. Vowing to be “useful and to serve the country at all times,” Duterte, the vice-mayor in the last three years prior, assumed the post that her father Rodrigo held for over 20 years. Sara won over House Speaker Prospero Nograles, her father’s longtime political rival, in an overwhelming lead of 200,000 votes in the 2010 elections. Nograles earlier filed a protest at the Commission on Elections in Manila questioning the results, alleging a “conspiracy” of local poll officials with Duterte.
In her inaugural speech, Duterte-Carpio said she wanted to be a pediatrician instead of a politician. “I never wanted to be a politician, but today I speak before you as city mayor,” she said. For over an hour, the front steps of City Hall was filled up with people wanting to have their pictures taken with Sara Duterte after she was sworn into office.
She ran again for the mayoralty post for Davao City in the 2016 elections and won the position succeeding her father, now the current president, for the second time.
Future plans and support for her father's administration
Barely two years into his term, Sara Duterte's father, President Rodrigo Duterte, announced that he wants his daughter to succeed him. The Dutertes are known to support political dynasties in the Philippines, when they aggressively gathered support against the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill during 2015, stating that their nearly four decades of uncontested rule in Davao as a product of "democratic" process. They also accused and blame various politicians of being political dynasties.
About two months after her father's proclamation of Sara Duterte as his "successor", Sara Duterte launched a movement that gathers support from Duterte's political allies, supporters and friends and called it "Tapang at Malasakit" (lit. Courage and Compassion). Sara Duterte denies that it has anything to do with any campaign or position, but pundits state that it was part of her plans to gain political traction for future campaigns and an attempt to rally political allies against Trillanes' "Tindig Pilipinas" (Be Upright, Philippines), a movement which actively pushes for investigation into Duterte's corruption, hidden wealth and involvement in extrajudicial killings and a stop to all of Duterte's lies.
Issues
Clobbering of a court sheriff
In 2011, Sara Duterte repeatedly battered a court sherriff who insisted on serving a court order to evict informal settlers and demolish shanties in a contested property in Davao. Hundreds of people witnessed as she repeatedly punched the sheriff in national television. Duterte stated that she asked the sherriff and the demolition team to give them two hours, but they refused. Thoroughly incensed by their refusal, she stormed off to the area of the conflict, and asked for the location of the sherriff. The visibly terrified sherriff saw Duterte approaching and before he could explain the situation to her, Duterte started clobbering him unrestrained. The sherriff was rushed straight to the hospital after being beaten up by Duterte.
₱2.9 Billion worth of missing assets
In 2010, Sara Duterte along with her father, Rodrigo Duterte, faced plunder and malversation cases in the Office of the Ombudsman filed by Pedro Domingo, head of a local non-government organization in Davao. Presenting the Commission on Audit reports from 2003 to 2006, Domingo alleges that the irregularities in the financial data reported by the Davao local government to the Commission on Audit, shows technical malversation as well as plunder for the missing funds that could not be accounted for.
The financial discrepancies and the content of the COA reports raised the issue of the Special Education Fund that was being allegedly misused by the local government to pay off caterers for "parties" and other non-educational purposes. Contrary to the facts presented in the report, the Dutertes insisted that the funds were properly used despite being unable to present any documentary evidence to back their claims. This unresolved issue that was pending in the ombudsman was revealed by Binay and his party-mates just before the presidential race for 2016. Sara Duterte's father, Rodrigo Duterte, who ran against the then Vice President Jejomar Binay stated that "Since we are both corrupt, let's withdraw from the presidential race together". Binay was also implicated in a corruption scandal at the time. In 2017, Rodrigo Duterte also admitted of being corrupt live in national television during a public speech, which was interpreted as a "joke" by his administration despite the somber mood in which it was delivered.
₱677 Million spent for undocumented work
In a Commission on Audit report, it was revealed that Sara Duterte had spent 677 million pesos in a massive hiring spree. In 2012, during the last year of her term in office as mayor, Sara Duterte suddenly hired 11,000 temporary workers for work contracts that extended up to six months, which includes 110 consultants which have special salaries. The report also stated that there were no sufficient justifying reason to hire the high number of employees nor were there any document to prove that they deserve their wages. The report also states that only a "master list" of hired individuals, fixed wages, positions and funding source were provided. No official contracts or accomplishment reports of their actual service were provided as proof for the massive amount of expenditure done by the city hall under Duterte. The investigating body only were able to verify around 600 of the 11,000 during their inspection. The City Hall merely stated that those other 10,000 employees are currently on "field work".
Philippine Drug War
Views on critics of the campaign
In social media, Sara Duterte called the politicians that opposes her father's "war on drugs" as ingrates. She states that they have no gratitude for the favors that the Duterte family gave them when they helped them out in the past. She also called them as "opportunistic power-grabbers" and "destabilizers" plotting to overthrow her father, contrary to the statements of the Armed Forces that there are no plots to destabilize the government. Critics fired back at Duterte for her hypocrisy when she herself had been vilifying "yellows" (Liberal Party members and supporters) despite the fact that her father was appointed by the then Cory Aquino, who was a "yellow". Critics said "if those politicians are ingrates, then what does that make of the Duterte family?". Duterte claims that they owe them no more gratitude because they had already long since paid it back by supporting them. She maintains her claim that those politicians owe the Dutertes debts of gratitude.
Alleged involvement of her husband in the illegal drug trade
In mid-2017, Sara Duterte's husband, Manases Carpio became involved in the ₱6.4 Billion "shabu"(metamphetamine) case when Carpio was spotted in a CCTV footage to be entering the office of the head of the Bureau of Customs who was implicated in the scandal. During the senate investigation, customs broker turned state witness Mark Taguba, testified that a certain Davao group which was spearheaded allegedly by Duterte's son, Paolo Duterte, was involved in the shipment of the drugs. Not a few days after, Manases Carpio was recorded through CCTV cameras to be visiting the office of the Bureau of Customs director Faeldon, who was implicated in the case. Carpio stated that he was merely visiting Faeldon due to a case. Carpio along with Paolo Duterte, later on, presented themselves in the Senate Investigation. They did not answer any questions, invoking their right against self-incrimination and they merely laughed at their accuser, Senator Trillanes who was presenting documentary evidence against them.
