After saying he’d pee on Taal Volcano, Duterte concedes no one can fight nature

Days after saying he'd pee on Taal Volcano amid its restiveness, President Rodrigo Duterte has conceded no one could put up a fight against nature.

Duterte joked about peeing on Taal when asked about going to the affected areas amid the threat of eruption and ashfall.

He had also declared that he would eat toxic ash spewed by the volcano.

Duterte has so far made two trips to the evacuation centers in Batangas since Taal had a steam-driven eruption on January 12.

“That is one aspect of life which we cannot really fight in the sense that when Mother Nature blows, it blows," Duterte said in an interview on Russia's state-owned media outlet, RT, aired on Friday.

"We just have to take the necessary steps to counter it, to meet the challenges of the ash, ashfall, and the devastation that it will create on the livelihood of the people,” he added.

Duterte on Monday asked Congress to pass a P30-billion supplemental budget that would fund the rehabilitation of communities devastated by the eruption of Taal, the Philippines' second most active volcano.

Congressmen heeded the President’s call with two lawmakers from Batangas filing a bill seeking the supplemental allocation. —NB, GMA News