Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is one of the most popular presidents in the world, despite – or perhaps partly because of – his record of prejudiced comments about women, gays and minority groups.
Driving the news: Polls suggest that his daughter and successor as mayor of the city of Davao, Sara Duterte, is the electorate’s primary choice to succeed him as president in 2022. But he said on Thursday that Sara would not be running.
- The presidency, he said, “was not made for women” because they have a different “emotional configuration” than men.
- Duterte, who frequently complains about the miseries of his work, added that his daughter “would go through everything that I went through”.
What to watch: Duterte is not eligible to seek re-election at the end of his six-year term, although an attempt by his allies to amend the constitution has raised speculation that he might try to stay.
- “Even if you serve it to me on a silver platter or give me another 10 years for free, I am done,” he said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Duterte is facing a Senate investigation into reports that doses of an unapproved Chinese vaccine were smuggled into the Philippines and given to more than 100,000 Chinese citizens, as well as some of the soldiers assigned to protect Duterte.
- Duterte told soldiers not to cooperate with the investigation, and his office described the vaccines as a “gift” from China.
- Worthless: Many of the Chinese citizens in question work in the offshore game. Several illegal medical clinics serving Chinese citizens who work with offshore gambling were discovered in the Philippines last year.
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