With a landslide win, Rodrigo Duterte is now the mayor of his hometown. How can he be mayor if he is detained?
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla said he would seek the ICC’s approval for Rodrigo Duterte to take an oath as mayor of Davao City.
Some of the winners of the Halalan 2025, or the midterm election already made their proclamations. Among the winners with an impressive landslide win despite his detention in The Hague following the arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is former president Rodrigo Duterte.
He was accused of committing crimes against humanity.
According to the results, he got 662,630 votes against his opponent Karlo Nograles‘ 80,852 votes. Duterte was proclaimed winner by the Davao City Board of Canvassers. He reclaimed the seat again after vacating it in 2016, when he became president of the Philippines.
He was Davao City mayor from February 1988 to June 1998, from July 2001 to June 2010, and from July 2013 to June 2016.
Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla expressed on Monday that his victory is being recognized and acknowledged, and was proclaimed a day after the election day. The next thing to do is to ask for the ICC’s approval if a consul can go to him, so he can take the oath.
According to his daughter, incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte, he may be an “absentee mayor” due to his detention. Based on the Local Government Code, a vice mayor has the power to exercise mayoral functions in case of a temporary or permanent vacancy.
In the midterm elections, his son Sebastian won as Davao City’s vice mayor.
Meanwhile, according to Duterte’s lawyer, Nicholas Kaufman, the support for the politician was overwhelming as seen in the results of the 2025 midterm elections. This also represented the public’s “total rejection” of the national government’s “attempt to stamp out” the former president’s legacy.
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