Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced his retirement from politics. He encouraged extrajudicial killings and threatened with jail for refusing vaccinations

76-year-old Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he had made the decision to retire from politics. About it informs Associated Press.

Earlier, Duterte refused to run for the post of vice-president of the republic in the elections in 2022. The president made this decision due to the fact that many Filipinos opposed his appointment as vice president, including due to a possible violation of the constitution.

As AP writes, applying for the post of vice president, Duterte could actually return to the leadership of the Philippines in the event of the death of a new leader or his inability to perform duties. According to the constitution, Duterte can no longer be re-elected as head of the republic, since in the Philippines, the president can only be elected for one six-year term.

BBC citing experts notesthat the reason for Duterte’s departure may lie in the fact that his daughter Sarah Duterte-Carpio, who currently holds the post of mayor of the southern Philippine city of Davao, may be nominated for the presidency of the country. Despite the fact that Duterte-Carpio led all polls in the Philippines this year, she spoke ambiguously about her possible participation in the elections.

Elections for the President, Vice President, as well as over 300 legislators and thousands of local government officials will be held in the country on May 9, 2022. The preliminary list of candidates will be published at the end of October this year. the final list is due in January 2022.

Rodrigo Duterte, elected in May 2017, advocated a full-scale fight against drug trafficking using the most brutal methods. According to Amnesty International, more than 7,000 people were killed by police or unidentified armed men in the first six months of his presidency. The world community has repeatedly condemned the president’s methods.

In the summer of 2021, Duterte also promised jail people who refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine. At the same time, the president noted that after the arrest of anti-vaccine patients “he will inject the vaccine into their buttocks.” The year before, Rodrigo Duterte allowed policemen to shoot to kill the violators of the lockdown announced in the country.