Sara Duterte

Political career

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 admitted wanting 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.

In 2011, Duterte became controversial after she repeatedly punched a court sheriff for insisting on demolishing houses inside a contested property in Barangay Soliman in Davao City. In 2014, Inday Sara Duterte was caught by traffic enforcers over-speeding along Quimpo Boulevard. The mandatory speed limit along Quimpo Boulevard is 40 kilometer per hour (㎞/h) but her car was caught speeding at 57 ㎞/h. Sources stated that the traffic enforcers were at first hesitant upon seeing who they were apprehending but Sara insisted that they instead confiscate her driver’s license and fine her for violating the speed limit law.

Duterte was also one of the nine elected governors of the Philippine Red Cross in 2014.

Initially hesitant and an opposition, but in October 2015, she shaved her head to convince her father to run for president in the 2016 Philippine general elections, despite the latter's reticence due to lack of campaign funds and political machinery.

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.

Personal life

Duterte has been married since 2007 to her fellow lawyer Manases "Mans" R. Carpio, and had two children: an adopted daughter nicknamed "Sharky" and a son named Mateo Lucas D. Carpio, nicknamed "Stingray". Manases is the nephew of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.

On 18 April 2016, in connection with the rape remark made by her father Rodrigo on one of his presidential candidacy campaigns, Duterte took to her Instagram account to admit that she was once a rape victim. However, Rodrigo Duterte dismissed his daughter's admission and referred to her as a "drama queen".

On 19 August 2016, Duterte announced amidst the Kadayawan Festival celebration in Davao City that she was on her seventh week of her pregnancy, carrying triplets. On 2 September, she suffered a miscarriage, which caused the death of two of her triplets. On 2 March 2017, Duterte gave birth to her third child, a boy whom she named Marko Digong D. Carpio, nicknamed Stonefish.