Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has said graft and illicit drugs were so entrenched in the Philippines that if he were not around, it would be better off run by a dictator, such as former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos.
Duterte on Thursday said in a speech that he wanted to quit before his term ends in 2022, but was reluctant to hand power to Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo, who was elected separately and was not his running mate.
The vice president has been a critic of Duterte’s deadly crackdown on illegal narcotics.
Duterte said that there would be disorder if his crackdown was halted and that the Philippines could do with an authoritarian at the helm.
“You’re better off choosing a dictator of the likes of Marcos, that’s what I suggested,” Duterte said. “Constitutional succession, it’s Robredo, but she cannot hack it.”
Duterte’s expressed admiration for much-vilified Marcos has been controversial, with many in the Philippines still tormented by his brutal two-decade rule, ended in his overthrow in a popular, army-backed uprising in 1986.
Thousands of people were arrested, killed, tortured or disappeared under martial law in the 1970s.
Many survivors are reminded of that by the political influence wielded by the Marcos family. His widow, Imelda Marcos, became a lawmaker; his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, is a former Philippine senator who lost to Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential election; and his daughter Imee Marcos is a provincial governor.
Imee Marcos, 62, is expected to run for the Philippine Senate next year and attends or speaks at many of Duterte’s public events around the country, despite having no role in his administration.
She caused outrage last week when she said it was time for older people to “move on” from the martial law years, like younger ones had.
Mercurial Duterte, 73, has been talking more often about retiring, due to exasperation about corruption and narcotics.
Rumors have spread that he is in declining health, which he dismissed on Thursday as “fake news.”
He on Thursday said that amid turmoil in the Catholic church worldwide, he wanted to create an “opening” at home for victims to reveal abuse by priests, which he personally had experienced.
He again joked about rape, despite repeated rebukes from women’s groups at home and abroad.
Commenting on police data showing his home city, Davao City, had the country’s highest number of rape cases, Duterte said there would be more where there were “many beautiful women.”
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
Counting was under way in Nepal yesterday, after a high-stakes parliamentary election to reshape the country’s leadership following protests last year that toppled the government. Key figures vying for power include former Nepalese prime minister K. P. Sharma Oli, rapper-turned-mayor Balendra Shah, who is bidding for the youth vote, and newly elected Nepali Congress party leader Gagan Thapa. In Kathmandu’s tea shops and city squares, people were glued to their phones, checking results as early trends flashed up — suggesting Shah’s centrist Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) was ahead. Nepalese Election Commission spokesman Prakash Nyupane said the counting was ongoing “in a peaceful manner”
RSS