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On Saturday night, Davao mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he’s running for president in the 2016 elections.
“My candidacy for the presidency is now on the table,” the indecisive Duterte said at a birthday party in Dasmariñas, Cavite.
He said he was disappointed at the Senate Electoral Tribunal’s decision to dismiss the disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe that he’s willing to vacate his position and run.
“The highest position is reserved for a true-blue Filipino,” Duterte said, adding “I cannot accept an American president.”
“Duterte emphasized that his decision was not a personal attack on Poe. Rather it was a matter of principle for him to ensure that only natural born Filipinos should be allowed to run,” reports GMA News Online.
He won’t yet file his candidacy on Monday, saying he still needed “to make the rounds to fill in the gaps,” and talk to the members of his political party PDP Laban about his new decision.
Said Duterte his party was still unaware of his new decision.
“As to whether Senator Allan Peter Cayetano would be Duterte’s running mate given that a television advertisement featuring Duterte and Cayetano had been airing regularly even before the mayor’s about-face, Duterte said, ‘it’s a loose alliance. He’s a friend and he’s been putting propaganda katabi kami, I don’t mind. He can use. He has the opportunity to place my name in tandem,” continues the GMA report.
Photo: Rodrigo Duterte/Facebook
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