President Rodrigo Duterte no longer wants to serve as a transition leader, if and when the federal constitution is in place by next year, as he announced his intention to step down to pave way for the new and younger leader to be elected by the public as “transition president.”

Duterte made the announcement which not only came as a surprise but also shocked his Cabinet members during a meeting in Malacanang yesterday, shortly after the Chief Executive met with the members of the 22-man consultative committee that drafted the proposed federal constitution.

Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said this is a major turnaround from Duterte’s earlier statements as he had been consistent in the past in expressing his willingness to serve as a “transition leader” until his term ends on 2022.

All these, however, will still depend on the public, whether they will approve of the new Constitution when it is presented in a plebiscite, possibly in 2019 of whether they already want Duterte to resign, the Palace official said.

“So if the people don’t want to get rid of him, they will reject the federal constitution,” Roque said.

“But I think he means it when he said that he will take all steps necessary to convince the people to change to a federal form of government and as a way of assuring them that he is not clinging on to power, he assured that he will step down immediately after the new constitution is approved. That’s what he said,” he said.

“In fact, he specified that, well I guess he’s assuming that the new constitution will be approved by 2019 so he’s willing to step down in 2019,” Roque said.

“Now, ayaw na nya to go until 2022 (He doesn’t want to stay until 2022),” Roque said to reporters in an interview after the Cabinet meeting.

Asked as to the reason behind the President’s change of heart, the Palace official said Duterte wants to put to an end the speculations on his supposed plan to remain in power beyond his term or beyond 2022, despite his repeated pronouncements that he’s willing to give way to the new leader even before the expiration of his term of office.

“And secondly, it’s because he’s very, very tired already. He said he was very tired, he is old and maybe electing a transition leader would enable a younger leader to take over,” Roque said.

“This is the first time that the President spoke about his plan not to remain in power beyond 2019. I myself was saddened by this as it came as a definite statement, that he wants to pave the way for a much younger leader,” he added.

Roque, thus, said Mr. Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) set to be delivered on July 23, his third, and could be his “last” will not be as lengthy as his previous ones.

“I will read my SoNA speech which should not be more than 35 minutes,” Roque, quoting the President, said in his Twitter account.

This will be a major departure from his previous speeches.

His SoNA last year took two hours while the first one lasted beyond an hour and 30 minutes, the longest delivered SoNA recorded after the 1986 EDSA Revolution in terms of word count with around 12,527 words.

Roque, however, made no assurance if the President will stick to his plan to read his speech or deliver his usual jokes and impromptu remarks.

Prior to this, the President, through his spokesperson announced that he has “instructed the consultative committee to elect a transitional president.”

“I am willing to cut my term to be co-terminus with the start of transition period. (The) committee agreed. This is to remove all suspicions (that I’m saying longer in power) and (also because) I am tired. (I am) ready to give it to somebody else,” Roque said in his Twitter account.