MANILA (SE): The controversial president of The Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, told a gathering of boy scouts from the First Scout Ranger Regiment in San Miguel, Bulacan, that if he cannot win his pet drug war, then he may think about resigning.
 
“If I can’t hack this I will leave,” Rappler.com quoted him as saying at the gathering on November 24.
 
The 72-year-old president said that he has no more need for prestige and power, as he has been in the limelight and the subject of applause for 40 years and has never lost an election.
 
Even in the first few days of his presidency he said that he would resign if he suspected Filipinos no longer wanted him to run the country and would step down if the country wanted to shift to a federal system of government.
 
But September this year proved to be a tough month for him, as what was intended to be a commemoration of the anniversary of the declaration of martial law by former president, Ferdinando Marcos, was met with major rallies of protest across the country, indicating that the people may not like his ways.
 
Duterte seems to be confused over his own boasting, as he had promised to end the drug trade in the country in three to six months, but over 15 months on, all he has achieved is a pile of dead bodies that has done nothing to stem the flow of the drug traffic throughout the country.
 
Although he boasted in the style of the former military dictator from Chile, Augusto Pinochet, who claimed not a leaf falls from a tree without his knowledge, Rappler.com reports that it has become apparent to him that he actually had no idea what he was talking about when he announced his plans to end the drug trade and this seems to be biting at his self-confidence.