Sara Zimmerman Duterte-Carpio (, ; born May 31, 1978), commonly known as Inday Sara, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who is the 15th and current vice president of the Philippines. She is the third female vice president (after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Leni Robredo), the third vice president to come from Mindanao, and the youngest ever Philippine vice president. A daughter of the 16th president Rodrigo Duterte, she is the leading figure of Dutertismo, the political ideology associated with her father. Duterte previously served as the mayor of Davao City from 2010 to 2013, and from 2016 to 2022. Duterte was also Davao City's vice mayor from 2007 to 2010.
Duterte graduated from San Pedro College, initially aiming to pursue a medical career. She attended classes in the College of Law of San Beda College and eventually graduated in San Sebastian College – Recoletos. She was elected as Davao City's vice mayor in 2007, before eventually serving as the city's mayor from 2010 until 2013, succeeding her father and becoming the youngest and the first female mayor of the city. After her first term ended, she took a brief hiatus, returning to politics in 2016 after being elected again as Davao City mayor and was reelected in 2019. During her second stint as mayor, she initiated the Byaheng DO30 and Peace 911 programs in the city, as well as overseeing the city government's COVID-19 pandemic response. Duterte was also an influential figure in national politics during her father's presidency, forming alliances with several political parties and playing a key role in the ouster of Pantaleon Alvarez as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2018.
Duterte ran for the vice presidency in 2022 under Lakas–CMD, becoming the running mate of Bongbong Marcos from the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas under the UniTeam alliance. Their ticket won in a landslide victory, becoming the first running mate pair to win together since 2004, and the first to be elected by a majority since the establishment of the Fifth Republic in 1986. Duterte became the vice president on June 30, 2022, having her inauguration held 11 days earlier in Davao City.
As vice president, Duterte concurrently served as the secretary of education amidst a national learning crisis and as vice chairperson of an anti-insurgency task force (NTF-ELCAC), but resigned from both positions on June 19, 2024. Despite her initial electoral alliance with Marcos, political observers noted her increasing absence from public appearances with the president in 2024 correlating with a growing rift in the Marcos and Duterte political families. By late August 2024, during police operations to arrest her father's ally Apollo Quiboloy, she openly admitted her regret to supporting Marcos in the presidential election, while Marcos himself later acknowledged that they have not spoken to each other since she handed in her resignation. After her father was arrested and brought to The Hague in March 2025, her tenure has been characterized by multiple trips abroad that aim to consolidate her family's overseas supporters.
On February 5, 2025, Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives after concerns were raised regarding her use of confidential funds and her assassination threat against President Marcos, his wife Liza, and his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez. She became the first sitting vice president, as well as the fifth official in Philippine history, to be impeached, and by May 2026, became the first Philippine official to be impeached twice. However, Duterte remains in office as a Senate trial is ongoing since July 2026 to determine if she should be acquitted or removed from her position as vice president. On February 18, 2026, she announced her 2028 run for president.
Early years Sara Zimmerman Duterte was born at Davao Doctors Hospital in Davao City on May 31, 1978. She is the second child to then-lawyer later president Rodrigo Duterte and flight attendant Elizabeth Zimmerman. Her maternal great-grandfather was German American, having fled to the Philippines from the United States.
Growing up in what she called a "broken family", Duterte has spoken of her "love-hate relationship" with her father when she was a student due to her disapproval for his womanizing tendencies and late night habits. On the evening of February 25, 1986, at age seven, she and her siblings were brought by Rodrigo to the San Pedro Cathedral to join in celebrations of the ouster of President Ferdinand Marcos by the People Power Revolution, in which her grandmother Soledad took part, with Sara remembering her father to have said: "Timan-i ninyo ning gabhiona ni. Ayaw ninyo kalimti" (). In 1994, her brother Paolo left the family without explanation to raise his first son (Omar Vincent) with Lovelie Sangkola for the next five years. Once Rodrigo left his wife Elizabeth in the 1990s, Sara stayed with her mother, and up to the time she was mayor, Sara considered her relationship with her father as "not very close". Despite this, Rodrigo considered Sara to be his favorite child, and placed high value on the education she and her brothers received.
Education and law career Duterte attended San Pedro College, majoring in BS Respiratory Therapy, and graduated in 1999; in her inaugural speech as mayor of Davao City, Duterte said she originally wanted to be a pediatrician instead of a politician. She later took up a law degree from San Beda College but transferred to the San Sebastian College – Recoletos, where she graduated in May 2005. In 2005, Duterte passed the Philippine Bar examination, with a score of 80 percent. She then worked for a few months as a court attorney at the office of Supreme Court Associate Justice Romeo Callejo Sr.
Alleged Jewish ethnicity
On September 30, 2016, Rodrigo Duterte sparked outrage after stating that "Hitler massacred three million Jews... there's three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them." Rodrigo Duterte claimed on October 3, 2016, during Rosh Hashanah, that the Zimmerman family is of patrilineal Jewish descent, with Elizabeth Zimmerman's father supposedly having fled to the Philippines from Nazi Germany. In the speech, Duterte said "[..] my wife is a Zimmerman. She is a descendant of an American Jew. [..] So why would I defile the memory of the Jews? What would I get if I insult the Jewish people [..]"
Contrary to popular belief and many Philippine and Israeli media reports repeating Rodrigo Duterte's claims, the Zimmermans are not Jewish. In a statement released on June 27, 2023, six years after both of Rodrigo's remarks were made, then-Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles reiterated that the claims that the Zimmermans were Jewish are false, saying "[t]he Zimmermans arrived in the PH in the 1930s and were not refugees during World War II. They are not European Jews, but came from the US." On June 28, 2023, historian Todd Sales Lucero (a columnist from The Freeman, a newspaper based in Cebu), reported that Zimmerman's grandfather, George J. Zimmerman, is an American German Lutheran who hails from Unterlangau, Bavaria, who is non-Jewish. While there are German Jews with the name Zimmermann, this does not mean all Zimmermans are Jewish in origin. DNA testing in the Zimmermans has further disproven the claim of Jewish heritage. It is likely that Rodrigo made the claim of Jewish ancestry in order to justify his previous remarks, after the fact.
Vice mayor of Davao City (2007–2010)
Sara's father Rodrigo had admitted to initially keeping his family members from entering "the messy and difficult world of politics", but by December 2006, he expressed that he would like for Sara to run as his running mate in the 2007 mayoral elections due to his concern for corrupt politicians taking over and ruining his legacy. Sara Duterte was elected vice mayor in 2007 with over 330,000 votes, defeating lone opponent Jeff Ho and succeeding Luis Bonguyan. Duterte served under her father for one term until 2010, and concurrently served as a regional officer of the National Movement of Young Legislators from 2007 to 2010. It was during this time when lawyer Zuleika T. Lopez was first hired by Duterte to be a staff member of the city government, receiving the position of city council secretary.
As vice mayor, Duterte's landmark project was 'Inday para sa Barangay', a whole-of-government approach servicing yearly in each of the city's barangays. It was later called the Caravan of Government Services when she transferred it to the Office of the City Mayor.
In 2008, Duterte's stated net worth jumped to ₱18.49 million from the previous year's ₱7.25 million (another source provides ₱13.88 million for 2007) based on her filed statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN), above the net worth declared by her father, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (₱15.32 million) in 2008.
First term as mayor of Davao City (2010–2013) In 2010, Duterte was elected mayor, becoming the first female mayor of the city, as well as being the youngest to have been elected, as she turned 32 years old just weeks after being proclaimed winner. She 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. Vowing to be "useful and to serve the country at all times", she assumed the post that her father Rodrigo held for over 20 years. After Duterte appointed Zuleika T. Lopez as city administrator a few days into her term, her decision was challenged by the city council led by Rodrigo, then the vice mayor of Davao, who argued that Lopez was unqualified for the position. In response, Sara withdrew her request for the council's concurrence in Lopez's appointment and threatened to halt city hall's engagements with the city council, stating that the council "should learn to respect" her office as mayor.
During her first term, she also served as officer in the National Executive Board of the League of Cities Philippines from 2010 to 2013.
On December 2, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III appointed her as Chairperson of the Regional Development Council (RDC) Region XI. She was the first woman to hold the position and the first to be appointed from the government sector since the reorganization of the council in 1986. As chairperson, she saw the growth of Davao Region’s Gross Regional Domestic Product from 3.9 percent in 2011 to 7.1 percent in 2012.
On July 1, 2011, Duterte gained national attention when she punched Abe Andres, a Davao City Regional Trial Court sheriff, over the demolition of shanties in Barangay Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr., Agdao, Davao City. Earlier, she had asked the court and the demolition team to delay the demolition; Andres declined her request and pushed through with the demolition which infuriated her. On July 11, Sheriffs Confederation of the Philippines Inc. filed a complaint against Duterte in connection to the incident. On June 28, 2012, almost a year after the incident, she publicly apologized to Andres and his family. By May 2022, Andres openly expressed his support for the Marcos-Duterte electoral team.
Policies Duterte promoted the city as a tourism and investment destination, introducing the "Davao: Life Is Here" tagline to market the city in 2011.
Political hiatus (2013–2016) Duterte decided not to seek re-election in 2013 to give way to her father Rodrigo. She also turned down her father's offer to run for representative of Davao City's 1st district.
Second and third term as mayor of Davao City (2016–2022)