SURIGAO CITY — if a late mayor is to be believed, President Duterte may soon find himself locked up after his presidency.
Former mayor Jaime Rusillon, the late executive of one of Siargao Island’s towns General Luna, prominently observed that both former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ended up in jail after personally visiting the world famous island.
“Both of them came to visit here during their incumbency as president and both of them eventually ended up in jail. Noyoy Aquino was spared because he came here when he was a senator. He did not come here during his presidency. There’s a curse here,” was what Rusillon once said.
During his visit on Saturday late afternoon, Nov. 6, President Rodrigo Duterte randomly said this in his speech: “If I go to prison, I go to Muntinlupa.”
“If I am tried, I should be tried by a Filipino judge in a Philippine tribunal. And I should be prosecuted by a Filipino prosecutor,” Duterte said in response to a case filed against him before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with the alleged extrajudicial killings in the country.
The ICC found “crimes against humanity” in the war on drugs campaign of President Duterte.
“If panahon na magpunta sa Muntinlupa, kung yan ang swerte mo (If it’s time to go to Muntinlupa, if that’s your fate)... Ehhh. But everything I did is for my country,” he said.
Rusillon passed away in 2017. He was succeeded by his wife, Cecilia. President Duterte and the late Rusillon, both lawyers, went to the same school at San Beda College of Law where, Rusillon said he was ahead of Duterte by two years.
Duterte went to Siargao Island as guest of honor at the inauguration of a sports complex in Dapa town worth ₱630.2 million. He also inaugurated three bridges in General Luna town worth ₱848 million pesos.