Duterte said in his weekly public address on Monday, almost all of the candidates communicated to him asking for his endorsement but he declined.
"But at this time, I am saying that I am not supporting anybody," he said.
Duterte said unless there is a compelling reason really for him to change his mind and decide to support a candidate. But until now, he has not seen any danger from the aspirants.
" May iba kasi diyan na may ideology ang nakasabit eh, " he said.
He said the country has been fighting a war that has been going on for the past 53 years and he does not want to exacerbate the situation by electing a president who would compromise the interest of the government.
" It need not really be a strong support militarily to the other side. But if you keep on eating into the foundation of our democratic constitution, there will be a time that tingin ko hindi na maganda," he said.
Duterte said all of the aspirants are qualified to be the next president except for a few misgivings about the danger of falling into a trap with the communists.
" I do not think that the military would be happy about it. They are for this, and also the police because we have suffered deaths," he said.
He said that many deaths were recorded for the fighting a cause that's almost nil to nothing about the relevance of ideology.
" And yet my soldiers, my police, at this time, I say “my soldiers and my police” because I am the Commander-in-Chief. And so every time I lose a life of one or two or three, it grieves me too," he said.
"I feel responsible for them, nasasaktan talaga ako. And so itong pagkapulitiko ko, iniwan ko na noong naging Presidente ako kasi wala namang re-election kaya there was a time to really ponder on how the things are in government," Duterte added.
File Photo from Presidential Communications