A STAUNCH ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte believes that Sara Duterte would become the president if her father dies in detention at The Hague.

Salvador Panelo, who served as presidential spokesperson and chief legal counsel during the Duterte administration, said this scenario had happened in the past.

“If you look at our history, when a prominent person dies, like the president, it results in the rise of a relative or a child,” Panelo said in Filipino in an Inquirer report.

Panelo cited the case of two late presidents — Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino III.

“Remember when Cory died? PNoy then had no ambition of becoming president, and then suddenly, when his mother died, he became president. This is what we see here,” Panelo said.

Panelo sees Sara as a strong presidential candidate. He added that it doesn’t even need a scenario of the elder Duterte dying for his daughter to become president.

“Actually, even if the [former] president doesn’t die – and we hope he doesn’t — it will be her who will become president,” Panelo added.

He further claimed the real motive behind the former President's arrest is to weaken Sara’s potential shot at presidency.

In various noncommissioned opinion survey polls, the vice president topped the list as the most preferred presidential candidate.

The vice president had expressed her interest in running for president.(Grace Fegarido, USJ-R Comm Intern)

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• #Rodrigo Duterte
• #Sara Duterte
• #President
• #The Hague
• #Salvador Panelo