By Genalyn Kabiling President Rodrigo Duterte recently took a swipe at former President Benigno Aquino III, wondering if he ever deserved to be elected president. President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (KARL NORMAN ALONZO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO) The President did not name Aquino during a pubic engagement in Davao City last Friday but alluded to his predecessor when he mentioned the election of the country's leader shortly after his mother's death. Duterte dropped the snide remark during his fresh tirade against the elite few who have supposedly wielded power to choose the country’s leaders and have been embroiled in corruption. "Hindi lahat mayaman na g*** pero itong mga elitista talaga who choose the country’s leaders. Sila ‘yan (Not all rich people are fools but the elitists are the ones who choose the county's leaders. It's them). I will not try names. But just because your mother died then you are qualified to run for president,” he said during the thanksgiving gathering with the Fraternal Order of Eagles last Friday night. "Just because the big business, pati ‘yung mga tycoon, mga Chinese, sila ang magpili. “Ito ‘yung kandidato natin.” “O sige, suportahan ninyo, bigyan ninyo ng pera' (Just because the big businesses, including the tycoons, the Chinese, they choose. 'Here are our candidates. Okay, you support them and give them money)," he said. Former President Corazon Aquino, the country's democracy icon, passed away on August 1, 2009 after battling colon cancer. Her son, then Senator Benigno Aquino III, later announced his presidential bid amid the wave of public sympathy following his mother's  death. Aquino, scion of the political family, eventually won the presidency by a wide margin, beating candidates including former President Joseph Estrada and former Senate President Manny Villar in the 2010 presidential polls. He served as the country's president from 2010 to 2016. In his remarks last Friday, Duterte claimed that unlike some politicians, he ran for president in the 2016 elections without the support of the country's elite. "All the time they were comfortable because I never reached three, two, one. I was only four --- four sa rating, four, four. So nobody gave me a Chinaman’s chance of making it to the presidency," he said about the rise to the presidency Duterte, who previously claimed that his victory was a gift from God, said he had no money and merely relied on supporters to propel his presidential bid. The former Davao City mayor, promising to eliminate illegal drugs, crime and corruption, scored a landslide win in the 2016 elections.  He is now halfway through his six-year term.