Duterte: If I step down, bring back Marcos to run Philippines
While reiterating his desire to quit before his term ends, Philippine president warns that would be disorder should his crackdown on drugs end
In a speech on Thursday, Duterte reiterated that he wanted to quit before his term ends in 2022, but was reluctant to hand power to Leni Robredo, the vice-president who was elected separately and was not his running mate.
Robredo has been a critic of the president’s deadly war on drugs. Duterte said there would be disorder if his crackdown was halted, and the Philippines could do with an authoritarian at the helm.
“You’re better off choosing a dictator of the likes of Marcos, that’s what I suggested,” Duterte said. “Constitutional succession, it’s Robredo. But she cannot hack it.”
Duterte’s expressed admiration for the much-vilified Marcos has been controversial, with many Filipinos still tormented by his brutal two-decade rule, ended in his overthrow in a popular, army-backed uprising in 1986.
Thousands of people were arrested, killed, tortured or disappeared under martial law in the 1970s.