Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte dialled up his criticism of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, saying his successor is looking to cement his rule beyond the current term limit in the Constitution.
The 78-year-old ex-leader, in his latest tirade, threatened to split his native Mindanao region from the rest of the nation. He also stepped up a war of words with Marcos, with the two trading accusations of drug use.
Congressman Pantaleon Alvarez is leading efforts for a possible signature drive on the “desirability of Mindanao seceding from the Republic of the Philippines,” Duterte said in a briefing Tuesday night. “This is not rebellion, not sedition, there’s a process I think before the (United Nations) where you would gather signatures,” he said.
Duterte’s daughter, Sara, serves as Marcos’s vice president. Cracks in the alliance of the Philippines’ two most powerful political families that won the 2022 election have become more visible this week as Duterte and his successor levelled drug-use accusations at each other while a politician son of Duterte called for Marcos’s resignation. If Marcos withdraws his support for amendments to the Constitution, ties will stabilise, Duterte said at the briefing.
“It’s a mechanism for perpetuation of power,” Duterte said of the moves to tinker with the nation’s bylaws, warning Marcos that if he pushes ahead, he will be ousted like his father who ruled for two decades by revising the Constitution. He urged Marcos not to be confident about the support of the military, warning him that if the situation becomes chaotic, “they have to intervene”.
The late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, father of the incumbent, was overthrown by a popular revolt following military defections in 1986. A year later, under then-President Corazon Aquino, a new Constitution was set whose provisions include limiting the country’s leader to a single, six-year term to prevent another abuse of power. Other presidents after Aquino also floated plans to amend the Constitution, only to pull back because of public backlash.
Earlier this month, Marcos supported moves to amend the 1987 Constitution, saying it needs to be rewritten for a “globalised world”. Marcos has yet to issue a statement on Duterte’s allegations about wanting to extend his term.
Duterte on Tuesday also hit back at Marcos who accused him of using the synthetic drug fentanyl for years. The ex-president said he took fentanyl with a doctor’s prescription and that he had stopped using it after he got better.
“Now I’m asking you, do you have prescription for cocaine? Where do you get your supply?” Duterte said, following up on allegations he made Sunday that Marcos was a “drug addict”. The current president on Monday said he won’t dignify the drug accusations with an answer.
Duterte’s secession threat comes after Marcos called for unity on Sunday. The ex-president said he’s “permanently retired” when asked if he plans to run for public office again. His public appearances though have increased since last year, and just this month had done at least two media briefings. A former senator had said people allied with Duterte were agitating the military, allegations that Duterte had denied.
“We have to educate the people about this advocacy of a Mindanao independence,” Alvarez said in the same briefing on Tuesday, talking about the secession plan.
Communist and Muslim armed separatist movements have flared in the Philippines’ resource-rich southern island of Mindanao since the 1970s, but none have succeeded. There is, however, an autonomous region in the southwestern portion of the island.