Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said former President Rodrigo Duterte's claims that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. might stay in power after his term ends in 2028 by declaring martial law as baseless.

In a statement issued last Sunday, Bersamin said: "A tall tale from a man prone to lying and to inventing hoaxes."

"This hoax is another budol (attempt to fool) emerging from a one-man fake-news factory," he added.

Speaking at a rally held in Mandaue Saturday, former president Duterte said:

“I’ll make a bet with you that once his term ends, he won’t step down from office,” Duterte said in Bisaya.

The president's father, whose second term was to end in 1973, declared martial law in 1972, citing threats from Communist rebels and the Moro National Liberation Front.

He and his family had to leave Malacanang in February, 1986.

"As our actions have consistently demonstrated, we will stay the course in upholding the Constitution, in adhering to the rule of law, and in respecting the rights of the people," Bersamin said.

"We will not backslide into the oppressive ways of the previous administration, when critics were jailed upon trumped-up charges and when kill orders were publicly issued with glee and obeyed blindly," Bersamin said.

"It is the leader of that troubled past who is depicting us as veering toward a system where anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, as many had been on his mere say-so as a tyrant who did not respect the rights of the people," he added. DMS