Sebastian "Baste" Zimmerman Duterte (, [dʊˈtɛɾtɛ]; born November 3, 1987) is a Filipino politician who has served as the 22nd mayor of Davao City since 2022. Following the 2025 elections, which he initially won as vice mayor, he served as acting mayor until officially assuming the post permanently in 2026. He previously served as the vice mayor of Davao City from 2019 to 2022.
The youngest son of the 16th president and former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his former wife Elizabeth Zimmerman, Duterte had initially expressed no interest in politics prior to his father becoming president in 2016. He later entered politics in 2019, having run for vice mayor unopposed. After his sister Sara, then the mayor of Davao, ran for vice president, he substituted for her in that year's election, winning in a landslide. After his father sought a return to the city's mayoralty, he ran as his running mate and won. Due to the continued detention of his father at The Hague and subsequent inability to take the oath of office, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) designated him as acting mayor. On January 23, 2026, Duterte officially became the permanent mayor.
In mid-2025, Duterte became the acting president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino party, succeeding Senator Robin Padilla, and was later appointed to the position in April 2026. Duterte has been embroiled in various controversies as mayor, including his failure to curb the deadly floods in Davao city despite the 13,917 flood control projects and a ₱51 billion fund for the city's 1st district alone, the largest in the country, provided to him and other elected members of his family by the national government.
The illegal drug trade also expanded in Davao city during his term, while he is criticized for his absenteeism especially during the height of calamities and other crisis, where he was previously seen partying in Europe.
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Early life and education
Duterte was born on November 3, 1987, in Davao City. He is the youngest son of 16th President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Elizabeth Zimmerman, a Filipina flight-attendant of Filipino and German American descent. His brother, Paolo, is the incumbent representative of Davao City's first district, and his sister Sara is incumbent vice president.
Duterte obtained his high school diploma at San Beda College in Manila. He took up legal management at the same college for a year before moving back to Davao, where he took up political science at Ateneo de Davao University.
He was initially offered by his father to run for Davao City councilor in 2013 and representative in 2016, but he declined.
Political career
Vice Mayor of Davao City (2019–2022)
In 2019, Duterte ran unopposed for vice mayor of Davao City with his sister and incumbent mayor, Sara, as his running mate under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago ticket. The siblings won the election. He has been appointed "acting mayor" of the city twice: from July 19 to September 17, 2019; and from September 28 to October 5, 2020.
Mayor of Davao City (2022–present)
On November 9, 2021, Duterte decided to withdraw his re-election bid for vice mayor. He named J. Melchor "Jay" Quitain Jr., Davao City's first district councilor and son of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Jesus Melchor Quitain, as his substitute. He then ran for mayor as a substitute to his sister Sara, who would later run for vice president. He later won in a landslide victory and assumed office on June 30, 2022.
During his tenure as mayor of Davao City, Duterte oversaw efforts to advance digitalization, economic development, and community engagement. In March 2023, he was appointed by President Bongbong Marcos as Davao Region chairman of the Peace and Order Council (RPOC) under the Department of the Interior and Local Government. His administration introduced the electronic business one stop shop (e-BOSS) to streamline business permits and attracted over ₱1 billion in investments in 2023. Tourism also increased, with 1.3 million arrivals. Key infrastructure projects, including the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project and a new Waste-to-Energy Plant, were initiated.
Duterte was also involved in the Marcos–Duterte rift during the 2024 constitutional reform attempts in the Philippines. On January 28, 2024, he attended the Hakbang ng Maisug prayer rally held in Davao City with his father Rodrigo and sister Sara, which opposed the Marcos administration's Bagong Pilipinas rally in Manila and supported constitutional reforms. During a political forum on the same day, he asked President Bongbong Marcos to resign, accusing him of laziness and incompetence. Although Senator Imee Marcos stated that Duterte later apologized, he clarified that his apology was directed only at the senator "out of pity" and demanded she stop "using him" for political statements.
On September 5, 2024, Duterte joined Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), the party chaired by his father Rodrigo Duterte, as its new member and executive vice chairperson. It was later announced that he would run for vice mayor once again in 2025, this time as the running mate of his father, who would run for mayor. Following the arrest of his father in March 2025, Duterte condemned the action as a political maneuver by the Marcos administration and even filed a petition with the Supreme Court alongside his siblings to seek the immediate release of their father, arguing the detention violated national sovereignty and due process.
Personal life
Duterte is a surfer and often posts images of himself surfing. He launched his own reality travel show Lakbai on TV5 in 2017, and has hosted the podcast called Basta Dabawenyo since its launch in 2024. Prior to 2016, Duterte formed a metal band in which he served as the vocalist.
Duterte, although unmarried, has three children, two of whom, Yair (born 2014) and one other child, are with model Darrela Kate Necesario, his long-time live-in partner. His eldest child, Yulia Africa ("Bella", born 2010), was born to Vanessa L. Basilio, an overseas Filipino worker. He was also involved in a months-long relationship with actress Ellen Adarna in the latter-half of 2016.
Duterte's habit of being absent from his family was criticized by his father, who called him "tarantado" (transl. good-for-nothing; jerk) during a public speech in 2017. According to Ramil Madriaga, a former aide to both President Duterte and Vice President Sara Duterte, Sebastian was described by his father as "bading" (lit. 'gay'). A male friend previously posted in Facebook as well that he and Sebastian Duterte slept in bed together in 2018, a post Duterte never denied.