Duterte vows to quit if Marcos wins vice presidency on vote recount

Marcos
An election poster featuring Duterte and Marcos together.

President Duterte has said he will resign if former Senator Bongbong Marcos wins his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque confirmed that the president would only stand aside if he was sure his successor would be the son of the late dictator.

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In his daily press briefing today (Thursday, August 16), Roque said the president had expressed his preference and raised the possibility that he may resign if Marcos wins his poll protest against Robredo.

“Well, what he actually said is a real statement of exasperation and a real genuine wish to step down if there’s a better leader, or if there’s a qualified leader to take over. 

“And he has said that he thinks Senator Bongbong Marcos is one of the better and qualified leader to succeed him.

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“If there’s a development and he will win the protest and he becomes vice president, yes, he will make true his word.

“If he wins, if he becomes vice president, perhaps the president will make true his word, that he will step down. Because what he is worried about is if we use Constitutional succession, then the successor may not be qualified.

“And then he expressed a preference who he thinks will be qualified. So if he wins, I think he has said it before. He has said it before that if he wins his protest and he’s declared as vice president, he’s willing to step down.”

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Roque refused to comment when asked if the president had made such statement because he knew something about the previous elections. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I mean, I will not speculate. I guess he was just saying, perhaps, there are so many other people who are better qualified.”

The president has recently said that he wants to step down due to his frustrations that he may not be able to deliver on his promise to stamp out government corruption.

However, he said he wouldn’t want Robredo to take over, adding that he would even prefer a military junta to the current vice president.

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