Duterte dares Sept. 21 protesters: Stay on Edsa for as long as a month

President Rodrigo Duterte guests for the second time in Erwin Tulfo’s program, “Sa Totoo Lang,” which aired live on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2017, over the People’s Television Network (PTV). (Photo from an RTVM video)

Those who would join the protests against the Duterte administration on Sept. 21 could stay on Edsa for as long as one month if they would want to, President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday.

“I challenge you, if you think three days, one month will do, go ahead, be my guest,” Duterte said in an interview aired over PTV-4. “I will just reroute traffic and ask the people: ‘I’m sorry, but there are guys there that want to occupy [Edsa]’.”

He said he would even allow them to use government vehicles. But he also reminded them to “protest in peace.”

“I can live with it for about one year,” he said. “And then let us see if the Filipinos want… I will see. But you know, I was elected constitutionally, I did not cheat.”

He hoped they could produce the crowd who had shown up during the previous Edsa Revolt, he said.

He could always resign from the presidency, he said. He would not cling to his post if the people really want him gone, he added.

“There’s no problem with that,” he said. “I haver no illusion about the presidency. I can always resign anytime I want.”

“Hindi ako hangal dito sa presidency,” he later added.

(“I am not a fool for the presidency.”)

If ever he would submit his resignation to Congress, it would have to be subjected to the concurrence of the military, who would see to it that the rules of the succession would be followed, he added.

Duterte also said he would want to stage his own protest on Thursday against against the “corrupt yellows” in government who he could not remove because of their fixed terms of office.

Asked if he had not requested Commission on Human Rights Chairman Jose Luis Martin Gascon to resign, he said he had not.

“Matter of delicadeza,” he added, once more describing Gascon as “spokesman of the Liberal [Party].”

He claimed Gascon had been fixated on a few deaths and had not paid attention to the victims in Marawi, which had been under siege by Islamic State-inspired terrorists since May 23.

The CHR, though, had condemned the violence of the Maute terror group in the past months and had sent a team to investigate claims of offenses against women from Marawi. /atm