MANILA -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Saturday he will no longer seek the vice presidency in next year's election and will retire from politics, a move that may clear the way for his daughter to run for president.

Duterte, who is constitutionally limited to a single six-year term as president, last month accepted his party's nomination for the country's second-highest office.

"The overwhelming sentiment of the Filipinos is that I am not qualified, and it would be a violation of the constitution to circumvent the law," the 76-year-old Duterte said. "Today, I announce my retirement from politics."

The remarks came shortly after Sen. Bong Go, Duterte's longtime aide, filed his candidacy for vice president.

The latest developments will fuel speculation that presidential daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte will move forward with a presidential bid. The mayor, who has topped opinion polls, last month said she would not run for president, following an agreement with her father that only one of them would run for a national position.

Jean Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said recent polls showing a drop in public support for Duterte may have spurred him to back out. "The second explanation is this is really part of a game of trying to strategize for the 2022 elections," Franco told Nikkei Asia. "Of course, this opens the way for Sara" to run, she said.

The Philippine election commission is accepting candidacies for the May 2022 general election through Friday, but substitutions -- similar to Duterte's gambit in 2015 -- are allowed until mid-November.