Speaking before the remains of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his vow to step down as president once a federal form of government is installed in the country.
Mr. Duterte again repeated the vow after he paid his last respects on the cardinal who died at Perpetual Succour Hospital in Cebu City on Oct. 18 at the age of 86.
“As a Cebuano, I’m telling you in front of His Eminence and inside this church, when everything is already perfect, I’ll go,” he said at Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral where the cardinal lies in state.
“I give you my word [on] this, in a house of God. We can’t lie here. If we can perfect the Constitution, I’ll personally see that it is really implemented and placed well,” the President said.
“I’ll make sure of it. I will just ask for a few months then I will retire as President,” he added.
No more political ambition
“What I can assure you tonight is… no one will be able to say that I just want to stay in the position for long just like (former President Ferdinand) Marcos. Don’t believe that,” he said.
He said he no longer had any political ambitions after serving as Davao mayor for 23 years, and then as congressman and vice mayor before becoming President last year.
“It’s because of trying to save the country from turmoil and bloodshed. That is my only concern. I’m already done with politics,” the President said.
“I’m already okay with what God [has provided]. I do not have any ambition anymore. What else should I ask for?” he asked people at the cardinal’s wake.
“God will ask me, ‘What else do you want? I gave you everything. In the end, you have nothing,’” Mr. Duterte said.
But, the President said, he could not set a timeline for the amendment of the 1987 Constitution.
Won’t stay longer
“It could be perfected next year, I’ll go. On the third year, I’ll go. I won’t stay longer. I’m already old. If I were a bishop, I would have also retired by now,” he said.
Mr. Duterte explained that he was pushing for a federal form of government because the current unitary system had only resulted in the concentration of power and resources in Manila.
“Manila’s scope of control is extreme. And that’s what probably pains our Moro brothers and sisters the most, the unfair distribution of resources,” he said.
“Everything is pooled here in Manila, where there are corrupt officials. That’s why they are hurt because so little is returned to us,” he added.
The President said resources should be distributed fairly to the country’s different regions “to avoid bad blood. That’s what I have to see, the transition.”
If the federal system is not established, Mr. Duterte doubted that the people of Mindanao, particularly the Moros, would accept it. —With reports from Jose Santino Bunachita and Nestor P. Burgos Jr.