By Junex Doronio
MANILA — Only last month, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte accused his successor President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos Jr. of being a drug addict but now he’s denying he said it at all.
“Si Presidente? Wala akong sinabi na ganoon, even if you kill me a thousand times, wala akong sinabi. Taking a drug, pero kung sabihin mong adik, wala akong sinabi na ganoon,” he said in a press conference in Davao City.
It can be recalled that Duterte told a large crowd of supporters in Davao City last month: “Bongbong, bangag yan. May drug addict tayo na president.”
On Tuesday (27 February 2024), Duterte also refused to further discuss plans for the Mindanao independence movement, which he floated earlier.
“It has always been the dream of some people to be independent, pero if it causes a rupture in our entire system sa republika, I will not go for it. Meaning I will not go for a force carving…Mindanao out of the Philippines,” the feisty former president said.
He added: “I do not want my country dismembered. I do not want a part of my country taken away. I do not want my country to be disturbed physically even in the slightest. It goes for Luzon hanggang Jolo.”
But last month, after accusing President Marcos Jr. of being behind the people’s initiative signature campaign to change the Constitution, FPRRD pushed the idea of Mindanao seceding from the rest of the Philippines.
Duterte even claimed that there is currently a “regrouping of the political arena that is still in the works” that would lead to the campaign for Mindanao to separate from the rest of the country.
Political analyst Ronald Llamas tagged Duterte as the “biggest threat” to President Marcos Jr.
(el Amigo/MNM)
