For the 2022 elections, the elder Duterte hogged the headlines for days as the deadline to file certificates of candidacy drew closer. Was he running? For president or veep? Eventually, he didn’t.
For the 2016 elections, which he won handily, he kept us guessing too. So much so that someone from his party was kind enough to file a COC for president and then gave way when Duterte announced he’d run.
And now, here we go again. Only this time, it’s not months before the election but four and a half years till the next one.
One more thing, we mentioned the former president’s political party — PDP-Laban — what has become of it? It’s decimated beyond recognition, a fraction of the juggernaut it used to be. But isn’t that what happens to a political party when a president steps down?
