PRESIDENT DUTERTE OF PHILIPPINES ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM POLITICS

Sat 02 October 2021:

President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines has announced that he would not compete for vice president in next year’s elections, and that he will leave politics after his term ends.

Duterte made the surprising announcement Saturday after escorting Sen. Bong Go, a former longtime confidant who instead filed his own vice presidential campaign at a Commission on Elections center.

“The dominant feeling… among Filipinos, is that I am not qualified and that it would be to contravene the constitution” to run for vice president, Duterte said, before adding: “Today, I am announcing my retirement from politics”.

Philippine presidents are limited by the constitution to a single six-year term and opponents had said they would question the legality of Duterte’s announced vice presidential run before the Supreme Court.

When Duterte took office in 2016, he initiated a crackdown on illegal drugs that resulted in the deaths of nearly 6,000 people, largely petty criminals, and frightened Western countries and human rights organizations. The killings are being investigated by the International Criminal Court.

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