DAVAO CITY — Former president Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday advised his and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s supporters not to fight. 

In a press briefing, Duterte said that despite his family’s rift with the administration, their supporters should keep their cool. 

“I’d like to urge everybody, don’t fight. Because President Marcos and I are not fighting. I was just telling him not to push through with Charter change. If he doesn’t go through with it, then happy days are here again,” he said in English and Filipino.

Duterte made the call after he had publicly accused Marcos of being a cocaine addict during a prayer rally in Davao City on 28 January.

The former president admitted though that the relationship between Marcos and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, may have been affected by his pronouncements. 

Duterte said he expects his daughter would resign from the Marcos Cabinet, “but not too soon.”

He said he had no tiff with Marcos whom he described as “mabait” (kind). “President Marcos is very kind. I don’t think he could harm a fly.”

However, Duterte reiterated his accusation against Marcos, saying he and his friends used to hold  drug sessions in a plantation in Davao de Norte. 

The former president rued how the incumbent president was being used by the people around him, particularly his wife and cousin. 

Duterte advised Marcos to simply enjoy the remaining years of his six-year term and then leave Malacañang at the end of it. 

If not, Duterte warned, Marcos may end up like his father who was ousted following a people’s uprising back in 1986.