While mayor of Davao City in the southern Philippines, hundreds of people were killed by what human rights groups say were government-linked death squads.
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Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in on Thursday as president of the Philippines, promising to carry out an uncompromising crackdown on crime across the country.
“The change, if it is to be permanent and significant, must start with us and in us”, Duterte said.
According to a Xinhua news agency report, Duterte’s gestures are being viewed as encouraging, given that the previous presidency of Benigno Aquino III had repeatedly antagonized ties with Beijing by stoking tensions over the South China Sea. “I thought, the mayor should have been first”.
In a country long ruled by wealthy political clans, Duterte rose from middle-class roots.
“I am elated by the expression of unity among our Moro brothers and leaders and the response of everyone else to my call for peace”, he said.
Duterte witnessed the official appointment of his national police and military chiefs in separate ceremonies and ordered them to combine their forces to fight criminals.
PCCI president George Barcelon said the broad-based socio-economic agenda of the Duterte administration was expected to lift the agriculture and fishery sectors and micro, small and medium enterprises in the countryside.
Aquino arrived at around 10:25 a.m., followed shortly by Duterte, who will soon be sworn in as the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines.
Also read: What are the challenges to Duterte’s plans?
Duterte is the first president to come from the country’s south, where a Muslim rebellion has continued for years.
“In this fight, I ask congress and the Commission on Human Rights and all others who are similarly situated to allow us a level of governance that is consistent to our mandate”, he said.
Duterte met with two rebel groups in mid-June to propose a federal system of government to give Muslims more self-rule. Those potential shifts have raised the specter of another hard phase in more than a century of a love-hate relationship between the Philippines and its former colonizer. China has refused to join the arbitration.
Amnesty International welcomed this change in Duterte’s rhetoric but hopes these statements were not “merely issued to placate critics but are translated into actual policy and implemented in practice”.
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Repeating a favourite campaign refrain, the new president also said it would make good business sense to set up funeral parlours. Last month, they raised the bounty they had put on the president, the Manila Bulletin reported. But he also said these problems are only signs of a disease affecting all of Philippine society. “The fewer Asian states that publicly counter this Chinese depiction, the more isolated the U.S”.
