President Rodrigo Duterte said Thursday he will not allow another Duterte to run for president once his term ends in 2022.
He made the statement following the persistent speculation that his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, will succeed him.
In his speech during a PDP-Laban campaign rally in Bacolod City, Duterte said he would advise his daughter to “lay off” plans for the presidency.
“I will advise her to lay off. If I know Inday [Sara], she won’t run for president. Inday’s too wise. She just wants to shake the tree,” Duterte said.
“Shaking the tree and getting rid of the dry leaves and everything. I will not approve of it. If you ask me, I will not allow her to run.”
Duterte said Sara was shaking the tree for the ripe fruits to fall off and the unripe ones to remain.
He had previously revealed that Sara “maneuvered” the ouster of former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez in July, paving the way for the speakership of Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
He said the presidency had also taken a toll on him, and that his job as president “does not pay.”
“You know, in all honesty, and I apologize for saying this, it [the presidency] does not pay. The exhaustion and the things you have to endure because you are there,” Duterte said.
“All the insults and the slurs. You know those aren’t true… I’m tired. I also want to go home.”
Months before the May 2019 elections, Duterte-Carpio has been leading the campaign of the regional coalition party Hugpong ng Pagbabago, touring the country to endorse 13 senatorial candidates for the midterm polls.
Some reports had previously quoted her as saying that, by 2021, she would be deciding on her presidential bid.
Duterte-Carpio’s organization of the administration-backed HNP, including a network of allies, has sparked speculation that she has been laying the groundwork for succeeding her father.
As talks about her supposed presidential run grew persistent, the Davao City mayor called on her supporters to stop naming her as the “next president.”
“I wish they would not talk about me like that because those who are eying the presidency as early as now, they would make me No. 1 in their hate list,” Duterte-Carpio told reporters in February.
“What I’m just doing is helping the President get through the remaining three years of his administration.”
The President himself has reiterated he does not plan to stay a minute longer in the presidency.
“On the day my term ends, I will step down and I will go home to Davao,” Duterte said.
