President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter, Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio, already holds the record of being the youngest and first female mayor of Davao City. Prior to this, she was also the youngest and first female vice mayor in the capital city of Southern Philippines.

With strong clamor for her to run in next year's presidential elections as successor to her father, she may as well become the country's youngest President ever. She turns 43 years old today.

For two consecutive surveys conducted by Pulse Asia – in November to December last year and in February to March this year - the presidential daughter emerged as the top choice to be the next Malacañang resident and commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), garnering 27 percent, with the next preferred candidate at 13 percent.

Soon after the Pulse Asia survey came out late last year, Mayor Inday Sara - as she is fondly called in Davao - said she has no plans to seek the presidency, with her father even saying that being President is a man's job, not for a woman, as there are many things that go with the position not fit for the female species.

Supporters of the President believe, however, that the changes made under the Duterte administration must be continued and sustained otherwise everything comes to naught if the dilawans wrest back the seat of power.

Although Mayor Inday Sara herself stressed that 'continuity is not based on kinship' as anybody can continue the gains of a previous administration, like how her father did that for President BS Aquino 3rd.

In a separate interview, the incumbent Davao City mayor said that if the opposition would also rally behind her – which could not be feasible - then she has no reason not to give in to the clamor, where many 'Run, Sara, Run' posters and tarpaulins have sprouted around Metro Manila and some urban centers in the Visayas and Mindanao since the start of 2021. She pleaded that she be given the slot instead in 2034.

But a group called Duterte Parin Movement has already mobilized support all over the country, as they believe it is their inter-generational responsibility to find a balance between change and continuity, noting that President Duterte won the 2016 elections on a platform of change.

Also, Guiguinto, Bulacan Mayor Ambrosio Cruz Jr. said on May 27 that the reason why they are expressing support to Mayor Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio is because she is the only qualified to run as President.

Six years is not enough to make a country progressive, citing Singapore and China how it took decades for a leadership to lift their countries to where they are today.

'What we need is to continue all what President Duterte started, and no one else [can fit the bill] except Mayor Sara,' he said.

Known ally Congressman Joey Salceda of Albay Second District, nevertheless, said he was certain the presidential daughter would run in the May 9, 2022 national elections.

He revealed to the media that she thanked him for his support and for helping her shine under his light, which the known economist-turned-politician jokingly answered with a question 'with my flashlight?' when asked how he would make the Davao City mayor shine.

Early life and career

Born on May 31, 1978, Sara is the middle child and only daughter of Rodrigo Duterte and Elizabeth Zimmerman. Her older brother Paolo is three years her senior and younger brother Sebastian is nine years her junior. They have a half-sister, Veronica, 17.

She studied at the Philippine Women's College of Davao City both elementary and high school. She took BS Respiratory Therapy at San Pedro College because she intended to become a medical doctor. But after a year in Medicine, she decided to shift to Law, and studied at San Sebastian College-Recoletos in Manila. She graduated in 2005 and immediately took the Bar and passed the following year, even garnering a higher rating than her father.

In 2007, she married fellow lawyer Manases Carpio, whom she met while attending San Beda University. They are blessed with three children – Mikhaila Maria or Sharky, Mateo Lucas or Stingray and Marko Digong or Stonefish.

Historic Du30 bus

Then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte finally agreed to run as President only when Inday Sara agreed to run as mayor. But due to lack of funds and machinery, the daughter made her part of the campaign, first by shaving her head – which she explained that it was not just to convince her father to go for the run but also for her mom who was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer.

She came up with the idea of a 30-day caravan across Mindanao and the Visayas – with her whole family in the bus, high school friends and former co-workers at GMA Network-Davao where she once served as host – and back to Davao City on election day.

As everyone knows now, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte garnered more than 16 million votes, five million votes more than the second placer, but said to have been cheated of five million votes too because of Smartmatic magic or hocus PCOS of the ruling party.

Influence in Congress

Although she never became a member of the House of Representatives, 'The Iron Lady of the South,' a moniker given her for her feisty rule and governance, she is believed to have played a major role in the coup that ousted House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte and installed Pampanga Rep. and former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Early 2018, she launched the Hugpong Ng Pagbabago coalition to counter the Liberal Party's Otso Diretso Senate slate. By landslide, all nine candidates she supported won, and the three others from her father's PDP-Laban party - leaving the former administration-turned-opposition bets down at the tally.

As her message for those who were undecided about her father then, 'People are surprised why the people of Davao are so passionate about him. It's because we've seen what he can do. Yung ibang taga-Davao, dala nila yung kuwento nung Davao. Subukan natin siya for six years. After, kung hindi maka-deliver, pwede natin siya pagalitan. Pwedeng hindi mahalin.'

And this reverberates as the choice for the next President is coming closer and closer - and very much applicable to her now.

Mayor Inday Sara is also a reserved full-fledged colonel in the AFP, giving her authority and audacity as a commander-in-chief if and when she becomes the 17th President of the Republic.