Former president Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday revealed that late former president Fidel V. Ramos was the “first guy” to “pushed him to run” for the highest post in the land.
It was also the 12th Philippine president, he added, who was the “first one to contribute money” for his presidential campaign.
“I remember when we were having a conference with (former Finance) Sec. Sonny Dominguez…FVR entered the room with a tennis bag. He placed it in the middle and said that’s the only money he could contribute to help me,” Duterte bared.
“He was the first one who pushed me to run and the first one to contribute the money. That is my fondest memory of FVR,” he revealed.
Duterte disclosed this during an ambush interview at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City after he visited the former president’s wake. He was accompanied by former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) chairperson Silvestre Bello III, and Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.
For more than two decades, Duterte served as Davao City mayor prior to running for president in the 2016 national elections.
He entered the presidential race as a substitute candidate under the PDP Laban party and later won by a landslide victory, garnering a total of 15,970,018 votes.