MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday again credited former president Fidel Ramos for inspiring him to pursue his ambition to run for the presidency.

In his speech during the Philippine National Police turnover ceremony, Duterte revealed Ramos visited him at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City and encouraged him to run for president despite his own misgivings about lack of funds and machinery.

"He said: 'It is time that Mindanao will have a president'...I prevailed because of his inspiration," he said.

Duterte said none of the presidential candidates in the May 2016 election talked about the problem of insurrection and correcting the injustices in Mindanao.

He said that when he decided to run, he did not have a single barangay captain outside the Davao region supporting his campaign.

"And yet, I won because Ramos was there for me. Nung sinabi niya, 'You know the ins and outs of the police. You know where the problem is. I tried and I was succeeding. Why don't you try and succeed?'" he recalled Ramos as saying.

Duterte also thanked Ramos during his inaugural speech on Thursday, saying the former president helped him become president.

ABS-CBN News, July 1, 2016