‘I’m tired’: Philippine President Duterte will not stop talking about quitting – so why isn’t he stepping down?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte keeps saying that he is tired and ready to quit. What’s holding him back? He is not satisfied with his successor.

“Guys, I want you to know that I am thinking of stepping down because I’m tired,” Duterte told a group of executives and politicians at the launch of a business programme on Tuesday night. Still, he told them he did not think Vice-President Leni Robredo, who is a member of the opposition Liberal Party, was up to the job.

“I am hesitant to suggest a constitutional succession,” Duterte said. “I have nothing against Robredo. She’s a lawyer. You have heard her talk. But I do not think she can improve on anything here.”

The speech was only the latest occasion that the 73-year-old former Davao mayor has lamented the pressures of the office. During the 2016 election campaign, Duterte said that if he failed to deliver on his promises, he could turn over the reins to Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jnr, a suggestion he repeated in a separate speech Tuesday night.

Duterte has offered to quit numerous times over the past two years: if allegations of corruption against him and his children were proven; if he managed to push through a constitutional shift to federalism; if someone proved the existence of God; or if enough women signed a petition after he publicly kissed a female supporter on the lips.