Duterte to name ‘most corrupt’ presidential candidate

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte said he will name the “most corrupt” presidential candidate for the May elections “in due time.”

“I will personally name the candidates and maybe what’s wrong with them that the people need to know because you are electing a president, who is the most corrupt candidate,” the tough-talking leader said at a televised public address aired Monday night.

He said Chinese businessmen who had transacted with the candidate were complaining that the person is too corrupt.

“People think the person is clean but those who transacted with him, including the Chinese, are complaining he is too corrupt,” he said in Filipino.

The President said it is his obligation to reveal “what’s wrong” with presidential aspirants because “we are talking of our country and the next rulers.”

“I am talking to you as your president. There are things you must know,” he said. “I get information from everybody, and also personal experience, observation.”

Mr. Duterte’s party, the PDP-Laban which has been beset by infighting, does not have a presidential nominee.

The outgoing leader, who is prohibited under the law to seek another term, said all presidential bets have issues except maybe for one, noting that there’s also a candidate who is unfit to assume the country’s highest post.

Mr. Duterte’s information came from “a wide array of sources” and “intel reports at his disposal,” his acting spokesman Karlo Alexei B. Nograles said separately in a regular news conference on Tuesday.

The President, whose daughter is running for the vice presidency, said last year that his administration will “stand neutral” during the May 2022 elections.

In November last year, Mr. Duterte tagged his daughter’s running mate, Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., as “a weak leader.” — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza