Among the young and fresh faces in politics, Davao City Mayor Sara Carpio- Duterte is Senator Panfilo Lacson’s top choice as the country’s next leader.

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“Speaking of Mayor Sara Dutere, make no mistake, If the next leader of our country would emerge from the young, fresh and new faces in national politics, my top choice right now is Sara Duterte,” Lacson said at a weekly forum in the Senate on Thursday.

“She’s strong-willed, stern, vibrant, progressive-minded, and has obviously good leadership qualities,” he said.

While there are also other emerging young leaders in the Senate, Lacson said Mayor Duterte “stands out” at least based on his opinion.

Lacson immediately clarified though that he was not endorsing the Davao City Mayor.

“I’m not endorsing her. I’m just saying that among the known young leaders, if we choose from young and fresh faces in national politics, I think you can agree with me na si Sara Duterte talaga ang tinitignan,” he said.

“Not only because she’s the daughter of the President pero yung track record nya rin pati yung experience nya as a local government official in Davao says it all,” the senator added.

President Rodrigo Duterte said earlier however that his daughter would not seek a national post.

READ: Inday Sara won’t seek national post, says Duterte

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Before heaping praises for the presidential daughter, Lacson talked about Sara’s alleged role in the change of leadership in the House of Representatives.

READ : Ping: Challenge Sara’s ‘role’ in House coup

Mayor Duterte reportedly called some congressmen to secure support for newly-installed Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Only because of what the Filipinos have experienced in the past administrations involving presidential relatives, we should reject any interference and influence peddling by somebody outside the official chain of the government bureaucracy, but who projects closeness to the President due to kinship,” Lacson said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s an Imelda Marcos or a Peping Cojuangco, or a Mike Arroyo, or any presidential relative. It is not about them. It is about undue intrusion in some major state affairs in which they have no business interfering,” he said. /muf

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