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Aquino calls on rivals to unite to stop Duterte winning presidency  


President Benigno Aquino III on Friday said he was facilitating in moves by his chosen successor Manuel Roxas to work with rival candidates and team up to stop Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte from winning next week's election.

Aquino, who has served his maximum one term, said he had been talking regularly to Roxas, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and Vice President Jejomar Binay and had exchanged text messages with Sen. Grace Poe, with a view to them joining forces to thwart the maverick Davao City mayor.

[Read: Mar invites Poe to dialogue vs looming dictatorship]

[Read: Poe open to dialogue with Roxas but won't withdraw from race]

"I am trying to get all of these different voices together and in that sense, perhaps help our candidate get together and have that united front," Aquino told CNN Philippines.

The final major opinion poll ahead of Monday's vote showed Duterte widening his lead, with 33 percent of respondents in the Social Weather Station survey backing him. 

The President fears the consequences if Duterte "does exactly what he intends to do."

In previous instances, Duterte had promised a "bloody" fight against criminality and to shutter Congress should lawmakers initiate moves to impeach him.

According to Aquino, an alliance among the remaining presidential candidates will improve the chances of winning.

"Mayor Duterte has roughly 30 percent. That means he doesnt have the 70 percent. In our democratic system, it's the majority that decides. Therefore, it behooves everybody to try and get together," the President said referring to the recent Social Weather Stations pre-elections survey.

"Instead of thinking what should we do if everything he says is exactly what he intends to do, why dont we remove that threat or problem or insecurity by uniting the 70 and defeating the 30. The whole point is, any of two of them unites, if it's Mar or Grace that unite, we have more than 40 percent. That defeats the 30 percent.

Aquino seeks to "unite the 70 percent to defeat the 30 percent."

"I'm trying to get all of the different voices of different sections together," he said, adding that doing so would present a united front.— Jessica Bartolome, Kathrina Charmaine Alvarez and Reuters/ APG, GMA News

Tags: eleksyon2016
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