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More Than Just the First Daughter: Fast Facts About Sara Duterte When you’re the daughter of a country’s president, especially one that makes headlines locally and internationally, it’s almost an automatic feat that your life will also be on the spotlight. Sara Duterte, a politician in her own right, is almost always at within the stories and news about her father, president Rodrigo Duterte. She’s not only the daughter of the Philippines’ president, but also the incumbent mayor of Davao City—a position her father previously held. Being part of the first family and an unabridged political dynasty in one of the country’s biggest cities, many are curious—who is Sara Duterte? She is the only daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte and former spouse, Elizabeth Zimemrman Born on May 31, 1978, Sara is the middle child and only daughter of President Duterte to Elizabeth Zimmerman, a flight attendant of Filipino-German descent. Sara has two brothers, Paolo, the eldest and Sebastian “Baste”, the youngest. When Duterte and Zimmerman separated, the former met businesswoman Honylet Avancena. They now have a daughter, Sara’s half-sister, Veronica “Kitty” Duterte. She initially wanted to be a pediatrician The first daughter performed well in the academe. In a 2016 Instagram post, she paid tribute to her father, highlighting his broken-record-like advice: Education is everything. The post also mentioned how PRRD never missed her recognition day as he always wanted to be the one clipping her ribbons. In college, she majored in BS Respiratory Therapy at San Pedro College, Davao City. Why? Because she originally wanted to work in the medical field. In her speech during her mayoral inauguration, Sara admitted that she never wanted to be a politician, she wanted to be a pediatrician. She eventually entered law school Sara Duterte studied law in San Beda College. It’s where she met her husband, Manases “Mans” Carpio, nephew of former ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio. One evening, when Sara was still in law school, she broke down because she was having a hard time with Wills and Succession—a subject matter in law. She called her father, who thought she was pregnant as she was, in her own words, “howling like a wounded wolf”. She explained how she was having a difficult time in her studies and Rodrigo Duterte, who is also a lawyer and is known for his straight-forward remarks simply commanded her to go back to her books because she wouldn’t find the answers in her tears. Tough as it was, but Sara felt straightened and comforted after that. She graduated in 2005 and passed the bar exams in 2006. She was the first woman mayor of Davao City Sara Duterte first entered politics in 2007. She ran for the position of vice mayor in Davao and won. She worked side by side with her father, Rody Duterte, who was then on his sixth inconsecutive term as the city’s mayor. Long before she was even recognized as the country’s first daughter, Sara already made history. In 2010, she won the local government election and became not only the first woman to be the mayor of the city, but also the youngest to be elected. She went viral In 2011, a video of a city mayor punching a Regional Trial Court sheriff spread in the internet and local medias like wildfire. Overnight, the name Sara Duterte is in everyone’s conversation. In her first term as Davao City’s mayor, Sara made headlines when she punched a local sheriff for disobeying her orders. It was an intense situation: a demolition of illegal shanties was about to happen, but to avoid riot, the mayor was asking for a two-hour delay, enough time for her to arrive in the area. The sheriff, who was being impatient according to the police, said they couldn’t wait anymore and proceeded with the demolition. Angered, Mayor Sara Duterte beckoned the man to come closer when she arrived, before punching him straight in the head. The sheriff tried to get away but her aids pulled him. In an interview, a year after the incident, Sara explained how she regretted her actions. The guilt comes from the fact that her daughter and other children saw the incident and she didn’t want to impose such actions on the youngsters. She said what she did was partly because of the pressure she was experiencing as a woman holding such a high position. She believed she needed to be tough and not show her emotions. She wanted to cry but couldn’t and she released the frustration through her fist instead. There’s a drink coined after her In light of the “punching” scandal, people’s opinion were divided. Some was calling for punishment against the Sara Duterte, but some supporters, particularly Davao hotels, took their support on another level when they concocted a non-alcoholic drink called The Davao Punch-a mixture of pomelo, calamansi and guava juices. She’s a real lady boss In her first year in the local government in 2007, Sara Duterte along with her father, then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, was subjected to the required SALN investigations. In the results, it was revealed that Sara’s net worth is even higher than her father’s. Her net worth totaled to 13.88 million pesos, while her father’s was just 9.7 million pesos. At the time, she was a shareholder to three companies—City Hall King Chow Foods, Davao Bounty Times Food Corporation and Davao Emerging Taipans Corporation. By 2017, the first daughter’s net worth ballooned to 44.8 million pesos, almost double of PRRD’s which was just 28.5 million pesos and her brother’s which was 27.7 million pesos. In that same year, it was disclosed that she is an incorporator and a shareholder of five companies. She is President Duterte’s favorite child Despite staying with her mother after her parent’s separation, Sara is deemed to be the president’s favorite child. If one would just base their assumption about the father-daughter relationship from the news and media reports, it would be easy to summate that the Zimmerman-Duterte middle child is the favorite. But Sara admitted in a couple of interviews that she rarely talks to her father. She didn’t agree with his supposed extramarital affairs and late-night activities, seeing how it frustrated her mother, and Digong, who has been leading Davao since 1988, is a busy man. In an interview with Rappler, Sara said that she was used to calling her father “Mayor” as he spent more time in the city office than with his family. She would only call him Papa in their private conversations. They have a love-hate relationship, but many sources close to the family claims that Sara is the apple of Digong’s eye. The president allegedly complained to a friend when Sara ignored him for a week. His fondness of her is also evident in his interviews and speeches. In one instance, he mentioned how Sara seemed to understand his mind, though he can never figure out hers. It was not a surprise that the former Davao City mayor groomed his daughter to take his place in the city. He was even quoted saying, “Ibang klase ang babae na ’yan (That woman is something else),”  She was supposed to give birth to triplets On August 19, 2016, Sara Duterte announced that she is pregnant with triplets—two identical and one fraternal. Her pregnancy, which was via In Vitro Fertilization of IVF, was sensitive. In an unfortunate event after another, which was the Davao City bombing in September of 2016, Sara lost two of the three fetuses in her womb. She gave birth to the remaining twin, a baby boy, in March 2017. She and her husband Mans Carpio, now have three children – their adopted daughter, Sharky, their first baby Stingray and the surviving baby from the triplets, Stonefish. The names were due Sara’s love for the sea. There are rumors about her presidential candidacy in 2022 When President Duterte made a comment about how he couldn’t think of anyone better than his daughter to be the next leader of the Philippines, rumors of Sara Duterte’s candidacy for the 2022 elections started to spread. Sara, a strong-headed and independent woman even apart from her family name, has her own brand of respect and honor in her name as Davao City’s mayor. When asked if she will run for presidency in 2022, the first daughter only requested for the people to ask her again in 2021. She doesn’t wish to talk about it way earlier before that because she doesn’t want to garner hate from future candidates and other political parties.