{"id":239042,"date":"2019-12-02T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2019-12-03T03:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239042"},"modified":"2019-12-02T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T03:48:15","slug":"duterte-i-pray-not-for-myself-but-ph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/02\/duterte-i-pray-not-for-myself-but-ph\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte: ‘I pray not for myself but PH’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on November 18, 2019. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that he is praying every night, not for himself, but the whole nation.<\/div>\n
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In a taped interview aired by morning show Unang Hirit on Tuesday, the 74-year-old Chief Executive said he regularly prays at night before he sleeps to ask God for the betterment of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, for my country.\u00a0Wala na akong hinihingi para sa akin, sa sarili. Bansa lang<\/em>\u00a0(I don\u2019t ask anything for myself. I make a wish for the country),\u201d he said, when quizzed if he always says a night prayer at bedtime.<\/p>\n

\u201cAko hindi na ako nagda-dasal para sa sarili ko. Para sa bayan (I don\u2019t pray for myself but the country,)\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte only has more than two years remaining to serve as President.<\/p>\n

He has repeatedly vowed to pursue a relentless crackdown on illegal drugs, criminality, and corruption in government in his remaining years in office.<\/p>\n

If he were Santa Claus, Duterte said he would first bring gifts to \u201cthe poor\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an interview with CNN Philippines on Friday, the 74-year-old President assured the public that he is still fit to perform his duties, despite his health problems.<\/p>\n

He also guaranteed that there is no need for him to release a medical bulletin on his health, since the 1987 Constitution only compels a president to disclose the real status of his health \u201cin case of serious illness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier revealed that he is battling with muscle spasms, chronic back pains, migraines, and autoimmune neuromuscular disorder.<\/p>\n

He also admitted that he has Barrett\u2019s esophagus, a potentially serious complication of gastroesophageal reflux disease, and Buerger\u2019s disease, a rare disease of the arteries and veins in the arms and legs.<\/p>\n

Duterte admits shortcomings as a father<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meantime, Duterte admitted that he has shortcomings as a father of his four children because the presidency is taking up too much of his time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedyo may pagkukulang ako\u00a0<\/em>even\u00a0sa mga apo<\/em>\u00a0(I have shortcomings as a father to my children and even as a grandfather to my grandchildren) because I don’t have time,\u201d the President said when asked how is he as a father to his children.<\/p>\n

He made the remarks, as he revealed that his four children \u2014 Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, Davao City First District Representative Paolo Duterte, Davao City Vice Mayor Sebastian Duterte, and Veronica Duterte \u2014 are all his \u201cfavorites\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sara, Paolo, and Sebastian are his children with his former wife, Elizabeth Zimmerman. Veronica, meantime, is his only child with his long-time partner, Honeylet Avance\u00f1a.<\/p>\n

On November 21, the President acknowledged that his eldest daughter, Sara, is the \u201calpha in the family\u201d as the presidential daughter is more dominant than him.<\/p>\n

He also revealed that his sons, Paolo and Sebastian, are even afraid of their sister.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Duterte dissuaded Sara from taking on the challenge as his successor in 2022 and warned her that the presidency could merely \u201cdestroy\u201d her.<\/p>\n

Sara bared in February that she was considering running for the 2022 president race, but the President on Friday claimed his daughter had already dropped her plan, considering that she would only be bombarded with criticisms.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2014 President Rodrigo Duterte has admitted that he is praying every night, not for himself, but the whole nation. In …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239042","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239043,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239042\/revisions\/239043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}