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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he will not run for vice president in next year’s election and will withdraw from politics after his term ends.
Duterte announced the unexpected decision on Saturday after accompanying his former longtime aide, Senator Bongo, who submitted his candidacy for vice president at the Election Commission Center.
Duterte said: “The overwhelming feeling of the Filipinos is that I am not qualified. To bypass the law and the spirit of the Constitution will violate the Constitution” and run for Vice President. “Today I announced my withdrawal from politics.
The President of the Philippines is restricted by the Constitution to a single six-year term. Opponents have said that they will question the legitimacy of Duterte’s election for vice president announced by the Supreme Court.
Duterte’s actions have sparked speculation that he is clearing the way for his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio to run for successor.
Duterte Carpio, who succeeded her father as mayor of Davao City, said last month that she would not run for a higher office next year because she and her father agreed that only one of them would run for public office in 2022.
“This allowed Sara Duterte to run,” said Antonio Lavina, a professor of law and political science at Ateneo University in Manila. But Lavina said that he does not rule out the possibility that the provocative leader will change his mind and become a substitute for Go.
Candidates must register before Friday, but withdrawal and substitutions are allowed before November 15th, which leaves room for last-minute changes, such as Duterte entering the election in the 11th hour of the 2016 general election. He won by a huge advantage.
“This is the political style of President Rodrigo Duterte that keeps everyone on the alert and makes sure that everyone abides by his promises. But he also has a reputation as a leader who doesn’t keep his promises,” Al Jazeera’s Jamela Alindoan reports from the capital Manila.
“During the 2016 election campaign, he repeatedly stated that he would not run for public office. He did not appear in the candidate’s application. One month later, someone submitted an application for him.”
Duterte announced in August that he would run for vice president in the next election-critics said the move was a smokescreen, motivated by fear that he might face criminal charges after leaving office.
Duterte ran for president in 2016 on the single issue of fighting crime in the Philippines. During the campaign and later as president, he repeatedly urged the police to “kill” drug suspects.
After taking office on June 30, 2016, he immediately launched a deadly campaign described by the country’s Catholic leaders as a “reign of terror”.
The latest data released by the government in June showed that as of the end of April 2021, police and other security forces had killed at least 6,117 suspected drug dealers in operations. But government data cited by the United Nations in June 2020 has shown that at least 8,600 people have died.
A 2017 report by the Philippine police also referred to 16,355 “homicides under investigation” as an achievement of the war on drugs.
In December 2016, Al Jazeera reported that more than 6,000 people died in the drug war, raising questions about the inconsistency of the government record-keeping system and the possible “manipulation” of government data.
Human rights organizations say the death toll may be between 27,000 and 30,000. They accused the authorities of carrying out summary executions, killing innocent suspects, including children.
According to a UN survey, at least 73 children were among the victims, and the youngest was only five months old. According to news reports, countless people were also killed by “unidentified” gunmen who later proved to be police officers. Few people have been prosecuted in the thousands of reported cases.
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