In Malacanang Palace, Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma on Wednesday disclosed that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino had already reached out to the Duterte camp to congratulate him on his landslide victory. Before the elections started, two polls revealed that the Donald Trump-like presidential hopeful led his opponents by 11 percent. During the campaign, Duterte touted his record in making Davao safe from crime using extreme measures, saying a year ago that his crime-fighting strategy was “kill them all”.
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But while his outbursts dominated the headlines, none dented his popularity-even a joke that he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Davao prison riot.
“I’ll behave if I become president”, he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather. “Let us begin the healing of the land”.
Raised Catholic, Duterte said he had left the Church after becoming mayor. He is known in the country for building a drug rehabilitation and treatment facility where drug users and dealers who want to change their lives can be admitted. He won more than 15 million votes with about 93% of precincts reporting, placing him eighth in line for one of 12 Senate seats.
The new government, he said, will strengthen basic education and provide college scholarships.
“I have to take care of the country”. What a pity. They raped her, they all lined up. He replied without elaborating, “I’m sure that there will be a resurrection one of these days”.
Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at times comical remarks on television late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.
Duterte was enraged by the reaction to the rape comments, which included criticism from the U.S. and Australian ambassadors, insisting they were taken out of context.
Dominguez said the new administration would index income tax and social welfare payments to inflation to benefit low income earners, and provide more welfare assistance to poor people who live in rural areas.
Mr. Lavina said they are optimistic that these proposals will not cause division in Congress, which is still dominated by the Liberal Party and UNA. A lawyer and former state prosecutor who briefly joined a communist organization in his youth, the 71-year-old has appalled many with foul-mouthed rants including calling the pope a “son of a whore”.
“I was devastated by the Duterte win”, said Gege Sugue, a freelance corporate trainer and writer in Manila.
He has vowed to execute 100,000 criminals and dump them into Manila Bay and has suggested he has killed people before.
Duterte’s vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters.
Using his rival’s nickname, he said: “Digong, I wish you success”.
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Tens of thousands of elected positions were at stake in the national elections, including the presidency, vice presidency, half the Senate, all of the House of Representatives and many local posts, ranging from governors and mayors to members of provincial councils.
