{"id":176892,"date":"2018-08-15T04:12:15","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T08:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=176892"},"modified":"2018-08-15T04:12:15","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T08:12:15","slug":"im-thinking-stepping-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/15\/im-thinking-stepping-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m thinking of stepping down: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cI said to the soldiers and police, ‘Guys, I want you to know that I am thinking of stepping down because I\u2019m tired’,\u201d Duterte said during the launching of the Go Negosyo\u2019s \u201cPilipinas Angat Lahat\u201d program at the Rizal Hall in Malaca\u00f1ang. (RICHARD MADELO\/PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Exasperated of the seemingly “endless” fight against graft and corruption, President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday said he is thinking of resigning and hand the presidency to a more competent leader who can solve the country’s problems.<\/p>\n

Duterte shared his idea during last week\u2019s joint command conference of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the Malaca\u00f1ang Palace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to the soldiers and police, ‘Guys, I want you to know that I am thinking of stepping down because I\u2019m tired’,\u201d Duterte said during the launching of the Go Negosyo\u2019s \u201cPilipinas Angat Lahat\u201d program at the Rizal Hall in Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I am not against or angry against anybody, my chase against graft and corruption seems to be endless and it has contaminated almost all government departments and offices,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said graft and corruption is so embedded and endemic that \u201cit is always a part of the territory of a transaction, especially by government\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I am getting old and exasperated. I do not think that with the limited three years remaining in my term, I could even hardly make a dent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last week, Duterte fired the entire board and management of the Nayong Pilipino Foundation Inc. for leasing government property for “ridiculously long period of time\u201d of 70 years to Chinese firm Landing Resorts Philippines Development Corp. (LRPDC).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to do something about Nayong Pilipino, so I fired all. I\u2019ve been telling everybody, a bid that is not rigged. Time and again, I humiliate them in public,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He said many unqualified bidders win government projects due to corrupted bidding process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey win and they go to the guys who are into business. No equipment, no capitalization, no nothing. And they would just start to sell it, to farm out the bids,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he did only five basic promises during the campaign, including the fight against corruption and illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said I will try to stop corruption which I\u2019m doing and still I cannot succeed even beyond my term. I told you that I will go after drugs and I warned everybody because on what used to be millions of transactions worth, it\u2019s now billions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said drug problems will not end at the end of his term, though his war on drugs has stopped the manufacturing of shabu in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we were wondering why there is no more large-scale manufacturing of shabu. Well, one is that because if you do it, somehow I will find a good reason to kill you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said human rights groups kept on counting the drug personalities killed in police operation but not the policemen who lost their lives in the performance of their duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, I would say that about 1,000 policemen and soldiers died because of the drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he told the military if they want junta in choosing the next leader \u201cand I\u2019d be happy to go home\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said there is no need for the military to resort to “melodrama”, such as bringing military tanks, just to force him out of Malaca\u00f1ang.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll you have to do is to call me, let\u2019s have coffee and say, \u2018President, sir, we find you not at par or not in parity with expectation’,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he is hesitant to recommend a constitutional succession, saying Vice President Leni Robredo cannot even \u201cimprove on anything here\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nothing against Robredo. She is a lawyer. You\u2019ve heard talk but I don\u2019t\u2019 think she can improve on anything here. Of course, she will deny it,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He said Robredo\u2019s hometown, Naga City was a hotbed of shabu.<\/p>\n

For those thinking that he would extend his term and be a dictator, Duterte said they must be the \u201clowest idiot in this country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally I\u2019m ready to go. I\u2019m telling the military and public and everybody is listening, if you find somebody who is better and more competent, then by all means place him or a group of persons who you think who could bring prosperity to this nation, then do it because I said I\u2019m tired and I think I cannot fulfill the promise of ending all these problems,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte got an overwhelming 16 million votes to become the first president from Mindanao during the 2016 elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Exasperated of the seemingly “endless” fight against graft and corruption, President Rodrigo R. Duterte on Tuesday said he is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":167408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}