Duterte to Marcos: Keep up good work

MANILA, Philippines — Months before last year’s elections, then president Rodrigo Duterte called presidential candidate and former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. a “spoiled” and “weak leader.”

But in a reunion with former officials and supporters yesterday, Duterte described President Marcos’ first year in office as “good.”

“The governance is so good. There is no disorder, we are at peace almost, and you have to credit it to the present administration. What we are seeing during his time is very good,” Duterte told reporters in San Juan.

He declined to comment on the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund.

Before he stepped down as president, Duterte had urged Filipinos to support the next administration.

“We must all be united in confronting the issues ahead of us. We have no room for politicking or going into a divisive exercise in whatever endeavors that you can think of just to divide the country. Let’s not do that,” he said during a televised meeting with officials in June last year.

Duterte, who once claimed he dismantled the oligarchy yet defended political dynasties, did not join his allies in endorsing the candidacy of Marcos as he ran with his daughter, then Davao mayor and eventual Vice President Sara Duterte.