President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Joint 68th National Security Council and 69th National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) Founding Anniversary Celebration at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on July 31, 2018. Also in the photo are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Former President Fidel Ramos, and Sec. Bong Go of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President. KARL NORMAN ALONZO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte said he is willing to stake the presidency if one of the biggest local news networks can prove that he has over P40 million in bank deposits and open his account in front of the network’s officials.

In a speech during the inauguration of Northern Mindanao Wellness and Reintegration Center in Malaybalay, Bukidnon last Friday, Mr. Duterte said he was challenging ABS-CBN officials to go with him to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to open his accounts and if the balance is not more than P40 million, he will ask the officials to line up so he can slap them.

“I am challenging ABS-CBN. We can go to the central bank and I will ask the governor to open my account. It’s just a matter of a few clicks on the computer. I will not give it to a son of a b**** enemy of mine. Why should I oblige you with it,” he said.

The enemy Mr. Duterte was referring to was Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV who has kept on with his allegations of hidden wealth of Mr. Duterte and members of his family despite the Anti-Money Laundering Council denying that it supplied Trillanes the supposed bank records that the senator claimed he obtained from the anti-dirty money agency.

“But if it is them (ABS-CBN), okay. If you prove that I stole, alright. This is a challenge.

This is a challenge which I am hurling at you now. I will ask that my account be opened. If it exceeds P40 million, I will step down. But if not, all of you should line up then I’ll slap each one of you,” Duterte said.

“You thought that everybody is a thief. That is the problem since the small people, if you make good in life, it is ascribed to luck. I am the son of a migrant here in Mindanao. We migrated here in 1950, ’49. We were left with our grandparents in Bohol and Leyte because my parents went here to start a new life. Greener pastures so to speak. But you who are rich, son of a b—-. You think you are different. So there,” he added.

Mr. Duterte added he is willing to have God “reserve the hottest place in hell” for him and victims of so-called extrajudicial killings “will go to heaven” in the pursuit of his relentless campaign against the narcotics trade.

The President added he had “little time left” to replicate in the entire country the success of the anti-drug war that cleansed Davao City of the menace.

“Look at Davao now, you can walk around. Maybe it’s not really the safest city in the Philippines but you can walk about whatever — night-time,” Duterte said.

“That’s what I want to do for the entire Philippines. And yet I have a little time left. Maybe if they were only able to replicate what they did in Davao,” he added.

Duterte’s commitment to rid the country of illegal drugs as he did in Davao is one of his campaign promises.

The President said he was not campaigning for any politician, adding that he had no plans to run in the 2022 elections. He said he is “ready” for retirement.

“Look just — I’ll just cut it short. I am not campaigning for anybody nor for me. I cannot run anymore even as a kagawad (barangay councilman),” Duterte said.

“After my term, I will retire and probably die slowly or if there is somebody who gets interested, then make it faster. Whichever, I am ready for retirement and for anything in life,” he quipped.

Duterte earlier had said he was willing to step down as early as 2019 as long as federalism is in place.

To allay fears that he had plans to stay in power beyond his term, Duterte had asked the Consultative Committee (ConCom) tasked to draft the federal constitution to include a provision that will ban him from running during the 2022 elections.

The President also asked the ConCom to allow the election of a Transition President to lead the shift to a federal system of government because he was “tired” and wanted a “younger leader” to take over.

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