The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today said Sara Duterte “is a wannabee dictator in waiting” as she is set to take her oath today as vice-president of the reactionary government. Duterte run in tandem with Ferdinand Marcos Jr and won an impossible landslide victory in the May 9 rigged elections.

“Sara Duterte is a wannabe dictator in waiting,” said CPP Chief Information Officer Marco Valbuena. He described Duterte as a “product of her father’s tyranny and corruption.”

Valbuena said the younger Duterte, who inherited the post of mayor of Davao City, “imitates her father’s demagoguery and dictator-style leadership.”

“She is not known to be particularly brilliant, neither is she sympathetic to the conditions of workers, peasants and Lumad minority people of Mindanao,” Valbuena said.

Sara Duterte is known for her iron-fist policy against workers organizing unions or waging strikes to demand wage increases. As Davao City mayor, she collaborated with the military and police in the relentless campaign of suppression against peasants and Lumads on the pretext of “localized peace.”

According to Valbuena, she is Rodrigo Duterte’s “insurance” to ensure that Marcos Jr will prevent the International Criminal Court to pursue its investigation and prosecution of crimes against humanity filed against the older Duterte over his sham war on drugs and counterinsurgency campaigns.

Valbuena also noted that although Sara Duterte allowed herself to run as Marcos Jr’s vice president, he considers her a threat to his power. “He appointed her as education secretary, when she made it categorically clear that she wanted to be defense secretary in order to control the military. Marcos Jr wants her far away from the center of power,” he added.

“Not soon later, cracks within the shallow alliance of the Marcoses and Duterte will surface and turn into a visible power-struggle,” Valbuena ended. (CPP Information Bureau)