Duterte Distances Self From ‘Revolutionary Gov’t’ Calls, Says ‘It’s Not My Job’

President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday he had nothing to do with efforts to establish a “revolutionary government” that would herald the shift to a federal system.

“Wala akong pakialam diyan. Wala akong kilala sa mga tao na yan. Hindi ko yan trabaho,” Duterte said in a taped address to the nation aired on Facebook.

(I do not care about it. I don't know any of those people. That is not my job.)

Duterte said some “desperate” sectors could take advantage of the pandemic. “Please do not add fuel to the fire. You will just destroy government,” he said.

A group that called on then Davao Mayor Duterte to run for president in 2016, the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte-National Executive Coordinating Committee, over the weekend renewed its call for the Chief Executive to head a revolutionary government until June 30, 2020, which is also the end of his term.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Monday described it as a “private initiative.”