Philippines’ next president vows a relentless crackdown on crime
Print Edition
PHILIPPINE politician Rodrigo Duterte yesterday vowed a relentless crackdown on crime after securing a landslide presidential victory built on foul-mouthed populist tirades that exposed deep voter anger at the establishment.
The 71-year-old firebrand’s main rivals conceded defeat after an unofficial tally showed Duterte had an insurmountable lead in Monday’s election of 6.1 million votes, a result that added to howls across the globe for strong, populist leaders.
Duterte, longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, captivated Filipinos with vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty, while offering himself as a decisive strongman capable of resolving a host of other deeply entrenched problems in society.
“It’s with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people,” Duterte told reporters in Davao yesterday as the results came in. “I feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people.”
He offered an olive branch to his rivals following a deeply divisive campaign that had seen President Benigno Aquino brand him a dictator in the making who would bring terror to the nation.
“I want to reach out my hand and let us begin the healing now,” said Duterte, whose campaigning style and ability to upend conventional political wisdom have drawn comparisons with US Republican Donald Trump.
However, Duterte vowed to push through on the central plank of his campaign platform — ending crime across the nation within six months and eliminating corruption.
On the campaign trail he had enraged critics but hypnotized fans with profanity-laced promises to kill tens of thousands of criminals, forget human rights laws and pardon himself for mass murder.
While avoiding such extreme inflammatory remarks yesterday, Duterte said a law-and-order crackdown that particularly targeted drugs would be one of his top priorities when he became president, and he was prepared to kill.
“I will do it (fight drugs), even if they say I am an executioner,” said Duterte, who rights groups accuse of running vigilante death squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 people.
“Look what I did to Davao. I will not let down the people.”
One of his Davao rules, night-time curfews for minors, would be imposed nationwide while a ban on the serving of alcohol after midnight would also be considered, his spokesman Peter Lavina said.
Duterte, who on the campaign trail boasted of being behind the death squads, also had a warning for corrupt police. “If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose: either you kill me or I kill you,” he said.
The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte the winner of Monday’s vote for more than a week.
However it had authorized the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor, to tally the votes, and they showed last night, with about 94 percent of the total counted, that Duterte could not lose.
Duterte had 38.60 percent of the vote, with administration candidate Mar Roxas on 23.42 percent and Senator Grace Poe in third with 21.65 percent, according to PPCRV.
In the Philippines, a winner is decided simply by whoever gets the most votes. The next president will be sworn in on June 30.
Duterte dominated local media coverage during the campaign and generated international headlines with relentless gutter talk, including branding the pope a “son of a whore.”
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary killed in a 1989 prison riot.
Duterte was enraged by the reaction to his comment, which included criticism from US and Australian ambassadors, saying they were taken out of context.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
