Duterte turns down Benz, puts it up for sale

MANILA, Philippines - Saying he has to preserve his moral ascendancy in the fight against corruption, President Duterte bared on Sunday having turned down a gift of a Mercedes Benz and offering the car for sale instead – with proceeds to go to the government.

“Pero nagmamagandang-loob, sabi ko OK (He meant well, so I said OK),” he said at the PDP-Laban anniversary celebration, referring to the giver whose name he did not reveal. The luxury vehicle is now at the Presidential Security Group (PSG) compound.

“Hindi ko tinatanggap, lagay ko lang diyan. Interesado ang sinong taxpayer, bilhin mo sa gobyerno, ipagbili ko (I did not accept. I just placed it there. To taxpayers who are interested, they can buy it from the government. I will sell it),” he added.

Duterte reiterated that he would never condone any form of corruption under his watch. “If I do, I will have no moral authority to criticize,” the President said.

“Whether you have money or you have none, I do not accept gifts,” he added.

Duterte said he is happy with the 1988 pickup he has been using since he was mayor of Davao City.

“Hindi ako sumasakay ng kotse. Kayong taga-Davao alam ninyo ’yan 1988 pickup lang ako. Hanggang ngayon sa Davao, pickup lang ako (I do not ride cars. People from Davao know that. I only use a 1988 pickup. Until now, I use that pickup),” the President said.

The President reiterated his promise to step down from office if any of his children gets involved in corruption.

“My campaign is against corruption. I am doing that. One of my promises is the war on drugs, I’m doing that. Cases? All of us in government have cases. Jail? So be it, that’s my luck in life. To be president and to be jailed, it’s OK as long as there is no corruption,” he said.

“Huwag lang ’yang pera kasi nakakahiya kung buhay ka, mas lalong nakakahiya kung patay ka na (If money is involved, it would be embarrassing while you are still alive. It would be more embarrassing once you are dead).”

Math hater

 In the same PDP-Laban event, President Duterte also joked about his disdain for mathematics and his desire to have calculus and trigonometry removed from the curriculum.

In his remarks – with Education Secretary Leonor Briones in the audience –  Duterte said he could not recall learning anything from the math subjects he took in college.

“I was in Baguio this morning for the graduation of class Salaknib. There was talk among generals about the hard subjects being taught at the PMA (Philippine Military Academy). You have to be a technical guy. Foremost is you have the mastery in mathematics,” Duterte said.

“I said ‘can we remove Calculus and other subjects in college?’ I could not recall anything,” he said in Filipino.

Briones just smiled when she heard the President mention her name in his speech.

Duterte said he was OK with physics and geometry because they tackled fundamentals of construction and were really “visible in the outside world.”

“But trigonometry and calculus, wala naman tayo pakialam diyan (we have nothing to do with them). Why do we have to solve 1+2a+2b? Nasusuka tuloy ako (It makes me puke),” he said.

“Bakit ihalo mo ‘yung alphabet pati Mathematics (Why mix the alphabet with mathematics)?” Duterte said, adding solving algebraic equations is pretentious.

“Let x equals the sum of money collected; let y, like that. It’s full of pretentions… What do you want to do? Addition? Where is my cellphone? What do you want? I can compute even up to millions,” the President said. 

“Why do we have to deal with cosine, sine, trigonometry, something which is really above our head ordinarily. Filipinos are not adept in Mathematics. That’s how we were raised,” he added.

Duterte also revealed that he hated Spanish subjects when he was a student. “Why do we have to speak Spanish? We don’t need that,” he said.

He also said Tagalog is driving him crazy.