In a press conference on Tuesday, May 10, Laviña said they will wait for the official proclamation of the mayor as the president-elect before presenting it to the current administration. During that time, he used extremely tough tactics to suppress crime in the city, winning him nicknames like “the Punisher” and “Duterte Harry”.
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Unofficial tallies had given Duterte, mayor of Davao, a big lead in the May 9 election.
The message apparently resonates with voters, though.
Among other measures in the city, he banned the sale of alcohol between midnight and 08:00.
As the Philippines chose a new president on Monday, its people sent messages of hope that the president-elect would make the best effort to advance ASEAN’s second-most populous country in both the economy and law enforcement.
His spokesman Peter Lavina told local media in Davao on Tuesday this could be extended across the country.
“We need to send out personal envoys to open lines of communication and express openness to cooperate”, he said.
Duterte’s spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference in the southern city of Davao that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution to switch from a US -style system of government to a parliamentary and federal model.
Duterte’s rapid rise to the top of Filipino politics invites ready comparisons to Trump’s abrupt rise to the top of the GOP. I wanted to call him: “Pope, son of a., go home”.
“All blood and no alcohol for a Duterte win”, tweeted Hannah Garay.
One Twitter user, Angelica Mercurio from Cavite, wrote: “You want a dictator?”
“It took us five hours to get from the hotel to the airport”.
“I would say to China, “do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours”.
But other Filipinos came out in support of Mr Duterte’s plan to end drinking on the streets. “Less crime, less accidents and less “pokpoks”, he said, referring to prostitutes.
With 10% of the ballot papers still to be counted, Duterte has collared around 40% of the vote against 15% to Roxas, who feels he can not bridge the gap.
“I also want to assure that it will not be limited to any particular cluster”.
“We can not announce until Mayor Duterte will be proclaimed victor by the board of canvassers”.
But he also signalled a potentially signficant reversal of government policy, saying he would be prepared to hold direct talks with China on the issue – potentially shattering the united front of claimant nations backed by the United States.
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“Foreign relations has been a major gap in Duterte’s published platform to date, and he and his team have yet to publicly define their approach to the South China Sea”, the publication quoted Jay L. Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
