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New Philippine leader seen as emancipator, looming dictator

“If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose either you kill me or I kill you”, he said. He has also advocated using death squads to target criminals, a stance that has earned him the nickname “Duterte Harry”, a reference to the break-the-rules cop “Dirty Harry” played by Clint Eastwood in a string of movies.

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Duterte has been mayor of the southern city of Davao for 22 years.

 President-elected Duterte plans a “major rewriting” of the Philippines’ constitution that would shift the country to a federal parliamentary form of government, from the current unitary form under which power is centralised, his spokesman Peter Lavina told reporters on Tuesday.

The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) said that with 90 percent of the presidential ballots counted, Duterte had about 39 percent of the votes.

Dutertes is seen as tapping frustrations with corruption and violence in a state that’s too poor to help many of those in poverty.

Retired boxing champion Manny Pacquiao appeared to have won a seat in the Philippine Senate, according to unofficial results Tuesday. During the three-month presidential campaign, he has drawn frequent comparisons to U.S. Republication presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.

The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte as the victor of Monday’s vote for more than a week.

On killing criminals: “Forget the laws on human rights”.

“However, he has given few details regarding the shape of economic policies to come under his presidency”, it said. “Let us begin the process of healing”.

A more pressing question may be how a candidate who has run as an outsider will actually govern as president.

 Liberal Party candidate, House of Representatives member Leonor “Leni” Robredo, looks set to be elected vice-president with 35.12% of votes.

About 55 million Filipinos registered to vote at 36,000 polling places across the archipelago of more than 7,100 islands, including in a small fishing village in a Philippine-occupied island in the disputed South China Sea. However, Rood believes he is capable of acting measured and thoughtful when he wishes to do so, “but that capability was not much in evidence during the domestic political campaign”.

Catholic leaders in the Philippines condemned Duterte’s comments but, like many other controversial remarks, they had little impact on his popularity.

He has not articulated an overall foreign policy, but has described himself as a socialist wary of the US-Philippine security alliance.

Other campaign firebombs included saying he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 prison riot in Davao.

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Lu said at a regular press conference that China has always attached great importance to maintaining relations with the Philippines. Duterte has suggested that he will dismiss Congress if gets in the way of his agenda, fanning fears that he will bring an end to the country’s fragile democracy.

CHANGE IS COMING’ Duterte slated to be Philippines’ next president