DAVAO CITY — Former president Rodrigo Duterte advised his and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s supporters not to fight.
In a press briefing on late night Tuesday, 30 January, Duterte said that despite their ongoing rift with the current administration, he urged their supporters to keep it cool.
“I’d like to urge everybody, huwag kayo mag-away. Kasi hindi naman kami nag-away ni Presidente Marcos. Sinasabi ko lang sa kanya huwag kayo pumasok dyan (charter change). Kung hindi nya ituloy, happy days are here again,” he added.
The call followed when Duterte publicly accused Marcos of being a cocaine addict during a prayer rally in Davao City on 28 January.
The former president admitted though that relationship between Marcos and daughter Vice President Sara Z. Duterte may have already been affected by his pronouncements.
Duterte said he expects that his daughter would soon be resigning from the Marcos cabinet, “but not too soon.”
Duterte said that he has no tiff with President Marcos Jr. whom he even described as “mabait”.
“Si President Marcos is very mabait. Di nga siguro yan makapatay man lang ng langaw,” Duterte said.
However, Duterte again reaffirmed his earlier accusation saying that Marcos and colleagues used to had illegal drug sessions inside a plantation in Davao del Norte.
The former rued how the incumbent president is being used by the people around him most especially by the wife and the cousin.
Duterte advised President Marcos to simply enjoy the remaining years of his six-year term as the highest public official in the country and leave Malacañang after his term.
If not, Duterte warned, Marcos Jr. may end with the same fate as his father’s who was ousted through a people’s uprising back in 1986.