On May 19, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte announced her irrevocable resignation from Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), the political party analysts believe to have catapulted her to the vice presidency. Lakas-CMD was Duterte’s top 2022 campaign donor. In her statement, Duterte thanked the party and assured the public that her commitment to serve the country – with President Marcos leading the way – “will be immutable.”
While no categorical reason was provided for her departure from the party, Duterte hinted at “political toxicity” and “execrable political powerplay”. The Vice President’s resignation from the party came after its chairman emeritus former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (now Congresswoman), was demoted from senior deputy speaker to deputy speaker in the House of Representatives. Duterte is a close ally of Arroyo. In accepting her resignation, the Lakas-CMD party said they respect and understand the Vice President’s reason for leaving the party. Similarly, President Marcos also expressed understanding for the Vice President’s move, citing that Duterte quit the party because she has too much work as education chief and co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
Some speculate that Arroyo’s demotion and Duterte’s resignation could be related to positioning for the 2028 presidential polls, adding that further resignations by Arroyo and Duterte “loyalists” could occur; while others see the occurrences as an indication that the Marcos administration’s “UniTeam” is falling apart and this would have repercussions in the revamp of the Marcos Cabinet.
