Unofficial tallies had given Duterte, mayor of Davao, a big lead in the May 9 election. And both have terrified the political establishment of their respective governments, with outgoing Filipino president Benigno Aquino III urging other candidates to united in stopping Duterte.
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“The path of good governance … is already established as all presidential candidates spoke out against corruption”.
An official victor had not yet been declared in the Philippines vote, but an unofficial count by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat. “What I can promise you is that I will do my very best not just in my waking hours but even in my sleep”, Mr Duterte said after the poll results were released. “Your victory is the victory of our people and our country”, said Roxas, a former interior minister. Here, I live in Manila, I’ve been pick-pocketed. a number of times now. “I will step back, listen to his policy pronouncements”.
Duterte won with 14.9 million votes.
Death squads killed over a thousand people in Davao under Duterte’s mayorship, according to Human Rights Watch, often in drive-by motorcycle shootings and stabbings. That earned him the nickname “Duterte Harry”, a reference to the Clint Eastwood film character with little regard for rules. He has also been compared to Donald Trump, the US Republican presumptive presidential nominee. If approved, the first federal elections could be held at the end of Mr. Duterte’s single permissible term as president in 2022.
“He made some astonishing claims that in the first three to six months of office he is going to solve major problems, like crime and corruption”, Richard Heydarian of De La Salle University told Al Jazeera.
During the campaign, the politician has peppered his speeches with boasts about his Viagra-fuelled sexual prowess and jokes about rape, but has “successfully tapped into widespread discontent”, says CBS News.
He has not articulated an overall foreign policy, but has described himself as a socialist wary of the US-Philippine security alliance. -Philippine security alliance. He has anxious members of the armed forces by saying that communist rebels could play a role in his government.
Mr Duterte has made many controversial statements during his campaign, saying that he would massacre criminals and drug users, joking about the rape of an Australian missionary and saying he would dissolve congress if it didn’t agree with him.
Telephone repairman Vermont Mendoza said he came home to the Philippines in December to help campaign for Duterte.
Mr Duterte displayed his softer side early yesterday when he visited his parents’ tomb in a Davao cemetery to pay homage to them. He stood in front of the tomb with his right hand on it and wept. “And I would say, this is part of a day’s work in the elections”. “I don’t think he’ll be declaring martial law anytime soon”. Filipinos have been hypersensitive to potential threats to democracy since they ousted the elder Marcos.
Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian country’s authoritarian past. He replied without elaborating, “I’m sure that there will be a resurrection one of these days”. Grace Poe, conceded to the former mayor late last night.
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Rodrigo Duterte, a man dubbed by his rivals as an executioner who would bring terror to the Philippines, has won the presidency by a clear margin, polling almost twice as many votes as his nearest rivals.
