Amid ICC detention, Rodrigo Duterte won in Davao as mayor. What’s next?
Former President Rodrigo Duterte was elected as mayor in his home city by a landslide amid his detention by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Despite being 7,000 miles away, former president Rodrigo Duterte has been elected as mayor in Davao, his home city, by a landslide, according to Halalan 2025 preliminary results on Tuesday.
Based on the partial and unofficial count, Duterte was voted by more than 600,000 people in Davao City, a figure that is nearly eight times more than his closest rival. Baste Duterte, his son, is also leading the vice mayoral race in Davao.
As much as we all know, Duterte is currently in The Hague, detained by the International Criminal Court (ICC). With his current situation, what will happen next?
According to Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Spokesperson Atty. John Rex Laudiangco, he can still be proclaimed as the winner as long as there is no legal order to stop it. Under the law of the Philippines, he was allowed to run as he was not convicted in any local court.
For the public proclamation ceremony, this can still be done even if he’s thousands of miles away, as this is more like a ceremonial thing. His daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, and his legal team are finding ways for him to take his oath remotely. They have until June 30 to do this.
“Yun ay pinag-uusapan namin ng kaniyang ICC lawyer at ng kaniyang Philippine lawyer kung paano siya maka-oath as winner ng mayor contest dito sa Davao City,” VP Sara said to the reporters.
Once official, this is going to be Duterte’s eighth term as mayor. He was mayor from February 1988 to June 1998, July 2001 to June 2010, and July 2013 to June 2016.
Under the Local Government Code, if the mayor is absent or incapacitated, the vice mayor will automatically step in as the acting mayor.
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