Party can’t budge Duterte; ‘heads shaved in protest’

DAVAO CITY—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is still not running for President despite the prodding of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) that he substitute for Martin Diño as the party’s standard bearer.

Diño stepped aside in protest of his treatment by the Commission on Elections as a nuisance candidate. Duterte is a member of PDP-Laban.

“Nothing has changed in my position about it (presidential candidacy),” Duterte said on his Sunday TV show, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa.”

He said his decision not to run for President remained. “I don’t have the stomach for it,” he added.

Asked by the program host about his reaction to the assertion by PDP-Laban officials that he had been selected to replace Diño, Duterte said he had not received formal notice from the party.

“That is what I heard but I have not received any official communication from PDP compelling me to run for President,” Duterte said.

He said he was looking to serve another term as Davao mayor but if his daughter, former Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, would substitute for him, he would retire.

“If Inday (Sara) will agree with the substitution and run for mayor, then I will immediately announce my retirement,” he said.

That is the plan, Duterte said.

He said the campaign of shaving heads to get him to run that was initiated by his daughter was actually in protest against those egging him to run despite his lack of money and machinery.

Photos of Sara and her brother Sebastian looking like skinheads and of their other brother Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte sporting a mohawk, circulated on social media and appeared to be a dig at their father who was then undecided about running for President.

“Sara’s [act] was in protest against people who kept harping for me to run for President,” Duterte said.