Duterte on presidential bid: ‘The die is cast’

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

DAYS after confirming that the option for the presidency is now “on the table,” Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said it’s all systems go for him in 2016.

In an interview with reporters during the opening of a Japanese restaurant in San Juan City, Duterte said that the “die has been cast.”

“No other factor will convince me to withdraw. The die is cast. I have crossed the Rubicon,” Duterte said.

“Crossing the Rubicon” is an idiomatic expression which means reaching “a point of no return.”

Duterte also said that he is throwing his hat in the presidential ring “as a matter of principle” because he does not want to have an American president to live in Malacañang, referring to the supposedly questionable citizenship of Senator Grace Poe.

Duterte’s latest statement differed from the one he gave last Saturday where he first declared his intention to run for the country’s highest post.

That time, he said that he will withdraw his candidacy based on two conditions: first, if Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) will overrule its decision favoring Poe; and second, if Poe finds her birth parents.

“Show me your real mother and I will even campaign for you,” he said.