It seems that President Rodrigo Duterte gave a hint of who he really wants to succeed him as the leader of the Philippines.
During his speech at the Ceremonial enactment of Ease of Doing Business Act in Malacañan Palace on May 28, 2018, President Duterte who’s defending himself from the accusations of the ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno expressed his willingness to retire from the presidency.
“Wala talaga, wala akong tinatago, sabihin mo sa gagang yan (Sereno), wala akong pakialam diyan, she got herself into it and it’s not because of us, not because of Congress,” Duterte said.
“Sinabi ko nga kung may magsabi lang na isa dito, anyone of you, magsabi na ‘tumawag ka sakin, nakalimutan mo may kinausap ka?’ mag resign ako, totoo yan,” he added.
However, Duterte seems that wanted to ensure first who’s gonna catch the responsibilities that he would left when he finally decided to resign from Presidency.
The President, who’s a known ally of former Senator Bongbong Marcos asked his audience about the current status of the recount between the latter and Vice President Leni Robredo.
“Tutal gusto ko nalang rin mag resign eh, ano ba itong latest count kay Bongbong (Marcos) pati kay ano (Leni Robredo), Vice President ba talaga yan?” he said.
Is this a hint that President Duterte prefers Marcos to replace him than Vice President Robredo?
Meanwhile, former Biliran representative and IT expert Glenn Chong claimed that Robredo already lost 21,000 votes during the manual recount.
“Ang totoo po niyan, natanggal po talaga ‘yun sa bilang… the 21,000 votes have been actually removed from the tally of nung nakaupong vice president si Leni. Nabawasan po talaga siya ng 21,000 votes,” Chong said.
He said that the information that he shared on his social media followers came from a legitimate source from the revisors of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
Chong said that Robredo lost votes because of the 50-percent shade of the ballot oval rule implemented by PET.
However, Robredo said that the information released by Chong was fake news.
Robredo defeated Marcos by only 263,473 votes lead.