Sara Duterte-Carpio (born Sara Zimmerman Duterte; May 31, 1978), also known as Inday Sara by the Davaoeños, is a Filipina lawyer, politician and the incumbent Mayor of Davao City. She also served as the city mayor from June 30, 2010 until June 30, 2013.^[1] Prior to her mayoral term, she has also served as vice mayor of Davao City from June 30, 2007 to June 30, 2010. She is the daughter of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte-Carpio is Davao City's first woman mayor and the youngest to have been elected to the position in the political history of Davao City after she switched roles with her father Rodrigo Duterte from 2010-2013 as mayor and vice-mayor, respectively. Vowing to be “useful and to serve the country at all times,” Duterte, the vice-mayor in the three years prior, assumed the post that her father Rodrigo held for over 20 years.^[2] Sara won over House Speaker Prospero Nograles, her father’s political rival, in a lead of 200,000 votes in the 2010 elections. Nograles earlier filed a protest at the Commission on Elections in Manila questioning the results, stating that there was a conspiracy of local poll officials.^[3]

In her inaugural speech, Duterte-Carpio said she wanted to be a pediatrician instead of a politician. “I never wanted to be a politician, but today I speak before you as city mayor,” she said.^[4]

Duterte was also one of the nine elected governors of the Philippine Red Cross in 2014.^[5]

In October 2015, she shaved her head to convince her father to run for President in the 2016 Philippine presidential elections, despite the latter's reticence due to lack of campaign funds and political machinery.^[6][7]

She ran again for the mayoralty post for Davao City in the 2016 elections and won the position succeeding her father, now the current president, for the second time.

Two years into his term, Sara Duterte's father, President Rodrigo Duterte, announced that he wants his daughter to succeed him.^[8] The Dutertes are known to support political dynasties in the Philippines, when they aggressively gathered support against the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill during 2015, stating that their nearly four decades of uncontested rule in Davao as a product of "democratic" process. They also accused and blame various politicians of being political dynasties.^[9][10]

About two months after her father's proclamation of Sara Duterte as his "successor", Sara Duterte launched a movement that gathers support from Duterte's political allies, supporters and friends and called it "Tapang at Malasakit" (lit. Courage and Compassion). Sara Duterte denies that it has anything to do with any campaign or position, but pundits state that it was part of her plans to gain political traction for future campaigns and an attempt to rally political allies against Senator Antonio Trillanes' "Tindig Pilipinas" (Be Upright, Philippines), a movement which actively pushes for investigation into Duterte's corruption, hidden wealth, and involvement in extrajudicial killings and a stop to all of Duterte's lies.^[11][12][13]

On October 18, 2018, after having alternated for two decades in the mayor's and vice-mayor office of Davao with her father (now the country's president) and her brother Paolo (former vice-mayor), she resubmitted her candidacy to the mayor's office of Davao and backs in his candidacy to vice-mayor to her younger brother Sebastian (without any previous political experience). Appears with them her older brother Paolo (who had resigned as Davao’s vice-mayor in December 2017), and who now returns to political life by presenting his candidacy to Congress.^[14][15] Paolo's wife (January Duterte, who is the incumbent Barangay Captain in one of the districts of the city) is also running in the municipal elections.^[16] She said in interview that she does not intend to withdraw her COC as city mayor and request for a substitution to run for a national post, similar to what President Rodrigo Duterte did before in the 2016 presidential elections.^[17] However, many political commentators are talking about her preparations to run for the Senate and even see her as the future president of the Philippines^[18][19]

Duterte has been married since 2007 to her fellow lawyer Manases "Mans" R. Carpio, and had two children: an adopted daughter, Mikhaila María, nicknamed "Sharky", and a son, Mateo Lucas, nicknamed "Stingray".^[20] Manases is the nephew of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.^[21][22]

On 18 April 2016, in connection with the rape remark made by her father Rodrigo on one of his presidential candidacy campaigns, Duterte took to her Instagram account to admit that she was once a rape victim.^[23] However, Rodrigo Duterte dismissed his daughter's admission and referred to her as a "drama queen".^[24] In August 2018, her father remarked about the high statistics of rape cases in Davao,^[25] joking that there are "many beautiful women" in Davao, which explains the high rate.^[26] Sara responded by defending her father, asking the critics what good they have done for Davao,^[27] compared to her family's governance.

On 19 August 2016, Duterte announced amidst the Kadayawan Festival in Davao that she was in the seventh week of her pregnancy, and that she was carrying triplets.^[28] On 2 September, she suffered a miscarriage, losing two of her triplets.^[29] On 2 March 2017, Duterte gave birth to her third child and the surviving triplet, a boy whom she named Marko Digong or “Stonefish”.^[30][31]