Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been at the helm of the Asian nation for more than five years, has announced that he will not run for vice president in 2022 and will retire from politics.

“The overwhelming… sentiment of Filipinos is that I am not qualified and it would be a violation of the constitution to circumvent the law, the spirit of the constitution” to run for the vice presidency. “Today I announce my retirement from politics”, Duterte said, as cited by AFP.

Rodrigo Duterte has been running the country as president since 2016. Because the Philippines’ Constitution bars anyone from serving two presidential terms, the country’s ruling PDP-Laban Party, chaired by Duterte, called on him to throw his hat into the ring for vice president in the 2022 elections. On 8 September, Duterte accepted the nomination, while another party member, Senator Christopher Bong Go, was nominated for head of state.

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