DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 08 November) – On the second floor of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) is a gallery of framed photographs of past and present officials, their names engraved on metal plates after “Hon.” (for Honorable), the present, on the wall leading to the session hall, featuring councilors in the three districts and sectoral representatives, vice mayor and mayor.
The space for the mayor has no name or framed photograph. Just the title “City Mayor” because the mayor-elect, the 80-year old former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (FPRRD) whose political career started in the SP as OIC Vice Mayor in 1986, has not taken his oath of office for his supposed 8thmayoralty term, leading to its permanent vacancy by Thursday, November 13 or six months after his May 13 proclamation as winning mayor.
Beside the space for “City Mayor” is “Vice Mayor,” above it the framed photograph of FPRRD’s youngest son Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, the elected Vice Mayor who has been Acting Mayor since June 30, 2025 because his father, detained in The Hague, the Netherlands since March 12 to face charges of alleged crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC), failed to take his oath of office.
By November 13, Sebastian’s photograph will move to the space for “City Mayor” while the photograph of highest-ranking councilor and Acting Vice Mayor Rodrigo “Rigo” Duterte II, presently on the extreme left, will occupy the space above “Vice Mayor,” as they assume their new posts in accordance with the Local Government Code.
Another photo of Sebastian’s will be placed inside the frame of “The Mayors and Vice Mayors,” beside his photograph as Mayor from 2022 to 2025. Of the 15 photographs inside, by November 13, 12 will represent the mayoralty terms under the Dutertes – Rodrigo, Sara and Sebastian.
The Duterte patriarch won an 8th term as city mayor here in the elections held last May but he will no longer be able to sit as mayor since the post he was elected to will be declared vacant by November 13 and Sebastian will be installed as Mayor until the end of the three-year term on June 30, 2028.
No SOCE, no oath-taking
On May 13, the former President, who was already in The Hague when the election campaign period started on March 28, was proclaimed winner of the mayoralty race, in absentia, during the May 12 elections. But he has not filed his Statement of Campaign Expenditures, a requirement before taking his oath of office, and has not taken his oath, a requirement before assumption to office.
The term of all elected officials in the May polls started on June 30, 2025.
On that same day, Local Governments Secretary Jonvic Remulla designated Sebastian Duterte as Acting Mayor, citing Section 46(A) of the Local Government Code that in cases of temporary incapacity, whether physical or legal, the Vice Mayor shall automatically perform the duties and exercise the powers of the mayor.
Remulla also designated Rigo Duterte as Acting Vice Mayor, citing Administrative Order No. 15, series of 2018, which lays down rules on the temporary filling of vacancies in local elective offices.
But Section 11 of the Omnibus Election Code provides that “the office of any official elected who fails or refuses to take his oath of office within six months from his proclamation shall be considered vacant, unless said failure is for a cause or causes beyond his control.”
Six months from May 13 is November 13.
MindaNews wrote the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) national office on October 9 seeking clarification on the status of Mayor-elect Duterte, Acting Mayor Duterte and number one Councilor Duterte by November 13, the sixth month since the patriarch’s proclamation.
MindaNews also asked the Commission on Elections’ spokesperson, Atty. John Rex Laudiangco, but he said the issue is “outside the jurisdiction of Comelec. This is with the DILG.”
Permanent vacancy
In the DILG’s reply on November 6, Romeo Benitez, Undersecretary for External, Legal and Legislative Affairs, said: “The Department is of the considered view that FPRRD’s incarceration (in The Hague) does not fall within the ambit of ‘cause or causes beyond his control’ considering the availability of persons authorized to administer his oath.”
He was referring to the Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands and the Consul as the nearest available authorized officials who could administer Duterte’s oath-taking in The Hague.
“Thus, in light of FPRRD’s failure to take his oath of office within six months, his office shall be considered vacant. Having failed to qualify, a permanent vacancy ensues in his office calling for the assumption of the Vice Mayor as the new LCE (Local Chief Executive) and the highest ranking Sanggunian Member as Vice Mayor, pursuant to Section 44 of the Local Government Code,” Benitez told MindaNews.
Voters in the May 12 elections elected a Duterte-Duterte tandem for Mayor and Vice Mayor – Rodrigo and Sebastian. By November 13, it will still be Duterte-Duterte – Sebastian as Mayor and his nephew, Rigo, son of his elder brother, 1st district Representative Paolo, as Vice Mayor.
By November 13, there will one Duterte less – the patriarch Rodrigo — bringing down the number of Dutertes in public office to seven: Vice President Sara, Mayor Sebastian, Vice Mayor Rigo, 1st district Rep. Paolo, Paolo’s eldest son Rep. Omar of the 2nd district, Paolo’s wife January, President of the city’s Liga ng mga Barangay; and cousin Harold Duterte of the PPP party-list.
“No intent to assume the office of Mayor”
But even before the mayoralty seat is deemed vacant, the Duterte patriarch, who served as OIC Vice Mayor in 1986-1987, elected mayor from 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2010, 2013 to 2016 and supposedly 2025 to 2028; 1st District Representative from 1998 to 2001; Vice Mayor from 2010 to 2013 and President from 2016 to 2022, “has no intent to assume the office of Mayor,” his daughter, Vice President Sara, said in late September.
“FPRRD is not a flight risk, has never threatened witnesses or complainants, and has no intent to assume the office of Mayor,’” she said in her September 27 “Statement on Humanitarian Concerns” in relation to the patriarch’s continued detention in The Hague.
The ICC has charged Duterte with three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, involving at least 76 deaths during his bloody war on drugs — 19 in Davao City while serving as mayor from 2013 to 2016, and 57 while serving as President between 2016 and 2018.
The ICC noted that the number of victims is only a “representative sample” of the thousands believed to have been killed extrajudicially within the period November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019, when the Philippines was still a State Party to the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.
Of 76 victims, 19 or 25% were killed in Davao City within that period. But the figure does not include those killed in the war on drugs in Davao City before 2011.
Even as the Davao City-based Coalition Against Summary Execution (CASE) had documented cases of alleged Davao Death Squad killings from 1998, the ICC can investigate only those within the period covered – November 2011 to March 2019.
Duterte ordered the Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC in March 2018 and it took effect on March 17, 2019.
Actual scale of victimization
The Prosecution charged Duterte for the 76 murders and two attempted murders “although the actual scale of victimization during the charged period was significantly greater, as reflected in the widespread nature of the attack,” the ICC said in the 15-page document containing the charges, signed by Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang on July 5 but whose public redacted version was released on September 22.
Duterte was charged as indirect co-perpetrator, ordering and/or inducing; and/or aiding and abetting the commission of the crimes.
In his first appearance before the ICC on March 14, Duterte was notified that the confirmation of charges hearing would be on September 23. But on September 8, this was reset to a still unknown date upon the request of Duterte’s counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, who claimed his client was “not fit to stand trial.”
On 3 November, Kaufman disclosed to the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor and
the Office of Public Counsel for Victims 13 items of evidence for Duterte’s defense, but the disclosed items are detailed in a confidential Ex Parte Annex A available to the Defense, Prosecution and Office of the Public Counsel for Victims only.
One less, one more
With the assumption of Rigo as Vice Mayor, the first district will have only seven councilors instead of eight.
The Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL), the political party of the Dutertes, endorsed nine candidates for the eight seats of the first district during the campaign period.
Under the Local Government Code, the political party nominates a replacement, the mayor appoints the nominee to serve the unexpired term, and forwards this to the DILG for confirmation.
HTL candidate Thristan Joshua “TJ” Braga Corsino, grandson of long-time councilor Pilar Braga, took the ninth place in the May 2025 polls.
During the election campaign, messages on tarpaulins urged voters to “Save VP Sara” from being removed through impeachment by voting for PDP-Laban senatorial bets and the HTL slate.
Apparently anticipating the possibility of Rodrigo Duterte winning but not assuming his mayoralty post, the HTL urged voters in the first district – where eight councilors are to be elected — to make Rodrigo II the first to be voted.
Tarpaulins in Talomo District made this call:“Unaha si #10 Duterte, Rigo” (Make Duterte, Rigo first) and below it, the message “Dugangi ug pito, diri pili” (add seven, choose here) referring to the list of the eight other bets for councilor under that message.
Making Rigo number one meant giving him the possibility of becoming the highest-ranking city councilor. Under the law, the number one councilor succeeds as Vice Mayor should the post be deemed vacant.
With Vice Mayor Sebastian assuming the post of Mayor, the number one councilor, Rigo, assumes the post of Vice Mayor. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
