Jaehwa Bernardo

Incumbent vice mayor and Mayor-elect of Davao City Sebastian Duterte takes his oath before Court of Appeals Associate Justice Loida Posadas-Kahulugan at the Sangguniang Panlungsod in Davao City on 27 June 2022. 


Sebastian, the youngest son of Rodrigo Duterte with Elizabeth Zimmerman, will be the third Duterte to be the mayor of Davao City in the last 34 years after his father Rodrigo and sister VP-elect Sara Duterte.  Manman Dejeto, ABS-CBN News

Incumbent vice mayor and Mayor-elect of Davao City Sebastian Duterte takes his oath before Court of Appeals Associate Justice Loida Posadas-Kahulugan at the Sangguniang Panlungsod in Davao City on 27 June 2022. 

Sebastian, the youngest son of Rodrigo Duterte with Elizabeth Zimmerman, will be the third Duterte to be the mayor of Davao City in the last 34 years after his father Rodrigo and sister VP-elect Sara Duterte.  Manman Dejeto, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

BASTE DUTERTE OATHTAKING

Katrina Domingo

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/177262557597920220627-baste-duterte-oathtaking-md-2.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Davao City Sebastian Duterte (center) in 2022. <em>Photo by Manman Dejeto, ABS-CBN News/File</em></span></span></span></div><p>THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte on Tuesday shunned the possibility of seeking higher office in the 2028 national elections, claiming that he is “tired and sick of it all.”</p><p>Duterte gave the statement in a chance interview after he visited his father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who was elected as Davao City Mayor in the 2025 midterm elections.</p><p>The younger Duterte — who originally ran for Davao City vice mayor last year — assumed the top position in their bailiwick city after their patriarch could not take his oath of office due to his continued detention in the Hague.</p><p>“Why would I? Hindi,” Mayor Duterte said, when asked if he would seek for a higher post following his sister Vice President Sara Duterte’s announcement that she will vie for the presidency in the 2028 elections.</p><p>“I’m f**king tired and sick of it all. Wala. Okay na yung Davao,” he said.</p><p>But the Mayor said that he “can always work under an administration… as long as the head of state is of sound mind, not this guy here in Malacañang right now.”</p><p>“May mahalal tayo na maayos na Presidente, na talagang you know, that will take care of the money of the people tapos, you know, it’s well-allocated and the national government is somehow decentralized enough that you know, like the provinces will benefit from it, then why not?” he said.</p><p>He says that so far, the Duterte patriarch has yet to discuss his thoughts on politics.</p><p>“Wala kaming pinag-usapan na ganun ngayon. Maybe tomorrow, maybe some other day but... wala I’m just happy to see him,” he said.</p><div><a class="fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/3/3/duterte-beaming-with-pride-but-warns-sara-of-misery-agony-of-presidency-kitty-says-1702"><strong>READ: Duterte &#x27;beaming with pride&#x27; but warns Sara of &#x27;misery, agony&#x27; of presidency, Kitty says</strong></a></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘I DO NOT TRUST THE ICC’</strong></div><p>When asked if he was optimistic that the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber I would find insufficient evidence and drop the crimes against humanity charges against the 80-year old Duterte, the Mayor said: “I do not trust this thing that you call the ICC.”</p><p>The Philippines’ 16th president was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in March 2025, and flown to the Netherlands to face 3 counts of crimes against humanity before the ICC, which has been reviewing his administration’s drug war that left thousands of Filipinos — including minors and women — dead.</p><p>The Duterte family has been crying foul over his alleged unlawful arrest, but President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration asserted that it only complied with a constitutional guarantee that the Philippines will cooperate with international tribunals.</p><p>Under Republic Act No. 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, the Philippine government may “dispense” a complaint when an international tribunal or court has already taken the case.</p><p>“There should have been a proper way of putting him inside the detention unit. And he was supposed to go to the local courts but none of that was followed,” Mayor Duterte said.</p><p>“If that institution is truly you know, for lack of a better term, kung maayos talaga, then they should send him back and follow the usual process, di ba? Kung talagang honorable itong institusyon na to,” he said.</p><p>“So anong asahan ko? How can I be optimistic in an institution that cannot follow its own rules?”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘NPA BEHIND DUTERTE’S ICC CASE’</strong></div><p>Mayor Duterte also alleged that communist groups are behind his father’s case in the ICC.</p><p>“It’s just the narrative of the left against our narrative. That’s it,” he said.</p><p>“Sino ba yung mga nandiyan, mga NPA naman yung mga nandiyan kasi sila yung tinamaan during the time of his administration and they went around Europe playing the victim card,” he said, referring to the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.</p><p>“That’s it. That’s basically it. That’s my narrative, so it’s my word against yours and yours against mine.”</p><p>The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber I is expected to render a decision on the sufficiency of evidence against Duterte in about 2 months.</p><div><a class="fr-green" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/2/28/icc-wraps-up-duterte-confirmation-hearing-ruling-due-within-60-days-0802"><strong>READ: ICC wraps up Duterte confirmation hearing, ruling due within 60 days<br/></strong></a></div><p>Should the chamber decide to proceed to a formal trial, the former President is expected to stay in detention for nearly a year before proceedings commence.</p><p>“That (trial) wouldn’t take place immediately because witnesses would have to be found and brought to the Hague,” said Nicholas Kaufman, Duterte’s lead defense counsel.</p><p>&quot;A lot can happen until the case actually starts trial… I can only gauge that based on the previous cases and previous cases have indicated  somewhere in the region of a year before trial actually starts with evidentiary hearings from day to day,&quot; he told ABS-CBN News.</p><p>A new set of judges is expected to be assigned to the case should it proceed to trial, the British-Israeli lawyer said.</p><p>The Duterte family also has the option to change lawyers for the trial proper, he said.</p><p>“At the end of the day, it is not a Catholic marriage. Clients are entitled to divorce themselves from his lawyers, but we hope that wouldn’t happen,” Kaufman said.</p><p>“The reason why I hope that wouldn’t happen because I’m hoping that the charges won’t be confirmed, obviously, or that we would win on our jurisdiction appeal.”</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4MEez48Psrk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><strong></strong><br/></div>

<p>Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte shunned the possibility of seeking higher office in the 2028 national elections, claiming that he is 'tired and sick of it all.'</p>

Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte shunned the possibility of seeking higher office in the 2028 national elections, claiming that he is 'tired and sick of it all.'

‘Tired and sick of it all’: Sebastian Duterte shuns bid for higher office

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‘Tired and sick of it all’: Sebastian Duterte shuns bid for higher office

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Mar 04, 2026 08:15 PM PHT

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