Paolo Duterte to retire from politics in 2019

FILE: Presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte on Thursday announced that he will retire from politics when his term ends in 2019. (Photo: Vice Mayor Pulong Duterte – Official/Facebook)

Presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte on Thursday announced that he will retire from politics when his term ends in 2019 but dropped a hint that it would still be a “Carpio-Duterte” tandem in the next local elections.

This announcement came after Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte announced that she would run for a congressional seat in the First District of Davao City in 2019.

“When Mayor Sara announced that she would file for a congressional seat in the 1st District, everybody’s asking me where I am going,” the vice mayor said in a statement on Thursday.

“It will still be a Carpio-Duterte tandem for mayor and vice Mayor, we are still talking to the other Duterte but definitely it will not be me,” he added.

Duterte did not name their relatives who would run for the two top seats, however the vice mayor said his sister’s husband, Atty. Manases Carpio, is “very qualified to lead the city with his background in the law profession.”

He added that talks are ongoing with the youngest of the Duterte siblings, Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.

Duterte said he would probably go back to farming after he retired from politics.

“Vice Mayor Duterte said that he had enough of politics and wanted to focus more on his family and on his small farm at the back of his house,” the statement read.

He said that allegations thrown against him by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV have affected his children, stressing that his daughter, Sabrina, even cried in front of him and his wife.

Trillanes accused Duterte of being a member of a drug triad, and that he is involved in the smuggling of a P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.

The vice mayor repeatedly denied Trillanes’ accusation and even attended a Senate hearing on the drug shipment.