PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT RODRIGO Duterte says he is backing out of an announced plan to run for vice president in next year’s elections and will retire from politics after his term ends.
He announced the surprise decision on Saturday after accompanying his former long-time aide, senator Bong Go, who filed his own candidacy for the vice presidency at a Commission on Elections centre.
Philippine presidents are limited by the constitution to a single six-year term and opponents had said they would question the legality of Duterte’s vice presidential run before the Supreme Court.
He took office in 2016 and launched a crackdown on illegal drugs that left more than 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead and alarmed Western governments and human rights groups.
The International Criminal Court is investigating the killings.
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