A public school in Barangay Banahao, Leyte, drew an unexpected guest last Friday when Vice President Sara Duterte joined its Brigada Eskwela preparations, the volunteer cleanup that readies campuses before the school year begins. The Inquirer reported that the stop at Banahao National High School was part of a trip to Baybay City, her first visit there in close to ten years.
Speaking to residents and students during the visit, Duterte recalled the last time she had set foot in the area. “The last time I came here to Baybay City was during the campaign in the 2016 elections for my father,” she said, according to a video a Barangay Banahao resident posted online.
From the school, the Vice President proceeded to the Diocesan Shrine of St. Anthony of Padua in Barangay Pompon, a pilgrim church that regularly draws devotees. A social media account of the visit, cited by Philstar, said she lit a candle in thanksgiving and prayed for peace across the nation, while urging fellow Filipinos to keep their devotion to God and to the country.
Among her petitions was the safe return of her 81-year-old father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, who has been detained at an International Criminal Court facility in The Hague since 2024. The elder Duterte is answering charges of crimes against humanity over the drug war he waged as president and earlier as mayor of Davao City, a campaign that left thousands dead.
The Baybay stop did not stand alone. Rappler noted that the appearance came a day after 18 men described as former marines testified at a contested Senate hearing, and that Duterte surfaced unannounced in territory associated with their lawyer, Levi Baligod. The barangay official who welcomed her, Chairperson Gongie Galenzoga, is Baligod’s brother-in-law. Baligod, who ran for senator in 2016, backed Rodrigo Duterte’s presidential bid that year.
