Manila: President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter said she plans to accompany her father on his official visits abroad to prevent him from getting into controversy with his expressions of affection towards women.
Sara Duterte-Carpio, the 40-year-old daughter of the president, said she intends to escort her father on coming foreign trips.
Sara, known to her Davao City constituents as “Inday Sara” (elder sister) and who is an elected mayor of the same city, had accompanied her father during his visit to China in April.
Reports said she plans to accompany her father on his planned trips to Papua New Guinea and Australia this year.
President Duterte was involved in a controversy last week after he kissed a Filipino migrant worker, Bea Kim, on her lips.
Kim is married to a South Korean. Although the incident did not offend her husband, various groups took it with offence.
“Gabriela Women’s Party deplores President Duterte’s flagrant display of machismo when he kissed an overseas Filipina worker on the lips during the meeting with the Filipino community in South Korea. We refuse to take such distasteful degradation of women as something not unusual,” the group said in a statement.
Sara said she was not able to accompany her father to South Korea because “the budget for the trip was limited.”
“Even if I had to spend my own money to make sure he would not be able to kiss anyone anymore, I’ll do it,” Sara said.
Duterte took a small delegation on his official trip to South Korea and it travelled on a commercial flight.
Sara, 40, is married to fellow lawyer Mans Carpio. They have two sons.
Sara is Duterte’s eldest daughter by his former wife Elizabeth Zimmerman. She has two brothers, Paulo and Sebastian.
The president has a daughter by his union with Honeylet Avecena who is his current "common-law wife".
