DAVAO City Mayor and presidential race frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte headed out to his parents’ mausoleum at past 3 a.m. May 10, 2016, hours after vote counting trends show him enjoying a very wide margin ahead of all his other opponents.
Duterte first hinted that he was going to his parents’ grave while being interviewed by reporters at the David’s Café at the Kingdom of Jesus compound of his friend Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy in Catitipan, Davao City before midnight of May 9.
Prodded on who he will be appointing in the different co-terminus positions that he has to fill up as president, he replied: “It's mind-boggling. I have to go to the grave of my mother and my father. I always do that. I ask my mother, sometimes my father. Hindi ako nagdadasal sa Santo. Sus, hindi man natin kilala yan (I don’t pray to saints. We don’t know them personally).”
There will be more than 1,500 co-terminus positions that a president has to fill up.
While facing the container of his mother’s ashes, the mayor broke down in sobs while apparently talking to her. Amid the sobs, he mumbled, “Dili ko katuo, Kinsa ra man ko (I can’t believe this. I’m a nobody).”
He said he had long wanted to have a good cry during the campaign, but never had the chance.
He later made light of what happened and addressed the three journalists still with him, “Daghang multo diri. Kadungog mo ganina perteng hilak sa usa (There are a lot of ghosts here. You heard one crying).”
Meanwhile, the mayor promised to be in his best behavior once installed as president.
“I can’t be bastos because I’m speaking for our country. Kung mayor-mayor lang pwede na. But if I’m representing the country, prim and proper na. Maging holy na ako,” he said.
r