DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told his supporters on Thursday evening he would “seek God’s guidance” to help him make the right decision on whether or not to run for president.
“I have to seek God’s guidance because at the end of the day, it (his presidential bid) will be God’s decision,” the mayor told Dutertistas—a term he coined for supporters urging him to run for the country’s top post.
The mayor made this statement after a woman from Parañaque, who joined the nationwide caravan of the so-called Dutertistas, suddenly knelt before him in the middle of their conversation at the lobby of the Royal Mandaya Hotel here.
Charles Raymond Maxey, a staff at the Sports Development Division of the City Mayor’s Office (SDD-CMO) here, said the woman, identified as Corazon Valenzuela, pleaded to the mayor to accept the call for him to run for president in 2016.
An apparently shocked Duterte tried to stop Valenzuela from going down on her knees, Maxey wrote on his Facebook page on Friday.
But before the mayor could say anything, Maxey said Valenzuela stood up, embraced him and said: “You are my president.”
The mayor could only smile and eventually told Valenzuela and his other supporters that his decision would require “God’s help.”
He then attended to other supporters who came from as far as Nueva Ecija, Cebu and Bacolod.
Thousands of people from various parts of the country arrived here in time for Friday’s culmination of the nationwide caravan staged by Duterte’s supporters.
Rogelio Poliquit, head of the City Traffic and Transportation Management Office, said he had deployed 80 traffic personnel to help manage the motorcade.
He said he had talked to Mar Masanguid, one of the organizers of the caravan, about his proposed route for the motorcade.
Duterte, who had denied any involvement in organizing the caravan, said he appreciated the efforts of people pushing for his presidency.
“There are people who want me to run for president even if I told them I do not want to,” he said.
Masanguid, a village chief here, said they were hopeful that Duterte would be convinced to throw his hat in the ring.
“He should see the clamor for him to run,”he said. Allan Nawal, Karlos Manlupig and Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao