He'll take you to hell

COMMONSENSE - Among his four children, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD) considers his daughter from his wife Elizabeth Zimmerman as the one who got most of his genes.

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

FPRRD was, of course, referring to Vice President Sara Duterte, who also followed his footsteps as Davao City mayor. VP Sara's youngest brother Sebastian, "Baste," is currently the mayor of Davao City, while eldest brother is Davao City Rep. Paolo "Pulong" Duterte. Separated from his first wife, FPRRD has another daughter Kitty with his domestic partner, Cielito "Honeylet" Avanceña.

At the height of their UniTeam campaign before the May 2022 elections, then mayor Sara told reporters that her mother called her attention against publicly quarreling with the opposition. "My mother told me: 'Everyone knows you are the daughter of Rodrigo, but people should also know you are the daughter of Elizabeth... Shut it down'," then mayor Sara quoted her mother's words.

Her 79-year-old father FPRRD is making a comeback bid as mayor of Davao City in the coming May 2025 mid-term elections, with son Baste sliding down as his vice mayoral runningmate. The father-and-son tandem have filed their respective certificates of candidacy under their local political party, Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod. Like father, like daughter, both are lawyers by profession and graduates from the same alma mater, San Beda College of Law. As far as FPRRD is concerned, it is his eldest daughter who is much like him in temperament and feisty attitude in life. Both also use the same vocabulary and penchant for colorful language, especially when hitting at their foes.

As always, the former president had the last word: "Hilahin kita, Ma'am (I will pull you to hell)!"