It’s final: President Rodrigo Duterte will not endorse any preferred successor with five days to go before the national elections on May 9.
Duterte, whose six-year-term will end in less than two months, said he is ready to vacate the country’s seat of power —even as he joked about meeting some of his followers in hell.
“There is time for everything. It is already set that I am to step down,” he said in a speech in Taguig City Sunday evening.
“If I die, don’t be afraid. I will see you in hell. I will wait for you there… I can even give you an exhibition – I will go to Satan and slap the son of a b***h. I will tell him to leave, or I will snap his tail and cook it for bulalo.”
“I will tell him to step aside – the President of the Philippines is now here to replace you. That is my promise to all of you, because there is nothing more I can promise because I will be out of office by then,” Duterte added.
The tough-talking commander-in-chief, however, said he has no preferred candidate to replace him come June 30.
“There are always assumptions just because I am seen in the company [of some people],” he said in a pre-recorded Talk to the People public address aired Tuesday.
“But let me repeat myself: You better disabuse your minds about getting into guesses and assumptions. None – I have no candidate for president,” he added.
The administration faction of the PDP-Laban has backed the presidential bid of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., whose running mate is Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio.
The President earlier described Marcos as a “spoiled brat” and a “weak leader” —comments that the former senator dismissed as just part of politics.
Duterte also cautioned his Cabinet members from publicly endorsing their preferred candidates to avoid casting doubts on the integrity of the electoral system.
“It is important that you are freed of the suspicion that you are for this (candidate) or for that,” he added.