(UPDATE) Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, who is leading opinion polls on presidential contenders, said Thursday she would no longer seek a national post after her father decided to run for vice president.
Duterte-Carpio said they agreed as a family that only one between her and President Rodrigo Duterte will run for a national position in 2022.
"Yes, I am not running for a national position as we both agreed only one of us will run for a national position in 2022," she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.
President Duterte on Wednesday formally accepted the nomination of his partymates in PDP-Laban to run for vice president next year, saying it would allow him "to continue serving the Filipino people and lead the entire nation to greater progress."
But the Davao City mayor said she would not support PDP-Laban in the upcoming elections the way the party helped Hugpong ng Pagbabago, her regional party, in 2019.
"No, I will not share my light this time," she said.
Duterte-Carpio earlier said that her father personally told her that he would run for vice president, and asked her to either endorse his tandem with Sen. Bong Go for president or pick the latter as her vice presidential running mate.
"I strongly suggest to the President and Sen. Go to own up publicly their decision to run as a tandem. If they can confirm it privately, then I do not see the reason why they cannot be candid about it to the public," Duterte-Carpio said.
"I respectfully advise them to stop talking about me and make me the reason for them running or not running," she said.
Despite her seeming rift with her father, Duterte-Carpio said their relationship is "the same as before."
"Our politics do not interfere with our familial relationship. Iba ang trabaho, iba ang pamilya. Walang personalan," she added.
Duterte-Carpio led the list of preferred presidential candidates for the 2022 elections according to the June 2021 Pulse Asia survey. She previously said she was open to running for president.
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