Former President Rodrigo Duterte is living his best life post-presidency.
In a recent conversation with his allies in the Senate, the former President shared his life after the presidency, including having more time for his family and himself.
Duterte, former Davao City mayor, served as the country’s leader from 2016 to 2022. He recently spoke about enjoying his “retirement phase” with Senators Bong Go, Ronald dela Rosa, Robin Padilla and Francis Tolentino.
Photos of the former leader’s “simple get-together”with the senators belonging to the PDP-Laban party have been shared on Dela Rosa’s Facebook page. Duterte is chairperson of the PDP-Laban party.
“I am enjoying, actually, my life sa retirement phase ko,” Duterte said.
Now that he has more free time, Duterte is making up for those hours of sleep he lost when he was in government.
“More time with the family, more time with myself and the badly needed kulang ko sa tulog nu’ng naging mayor ako at naging presidente for the longest time,” he said.
“So a lot of [catching] up, not really for health reasons, okay naman ako, but ‘yung para sa sarili ko and more time with the family,” he added.
Even after his six-year term, Duterte still keeps a huge political clout not only here, but abroad.
The former leader recently held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing amid the raging West Philippine Sea dispute. After the meeting, China announced that Xi had expressed hope that Duterte will continue to play an important role in the cooperation between the two countries.
During his presidency, Duterte chose to veer away from the country’s western ally the United States and diversify alliances with nations like China and Russia.
In a marked departure from his predecessor’s tactic, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appeared to be pro-America, reinvigorating the Philippine-United alliance under his watch.
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