“The Punisher”, “Dirty Harry”, “Dictator”,
“Donald Trump of the Philippines” and many more are some titles that best
describe the incoming 16th President of the Philippines- Rodrigo Roa “Digong”
Duterte. Known as the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, he did a big jump to
Malacañang as he leads the latest presidential election. The 71 years old Mayor
and now the “Presumptive President” was born on March 28, 1945, in Maasin,
Southern Leyte, his father served as the Governor of Davao while his mother was
a school teacher. He spent his elementary and high school years in Davao and
then studied in Lyceum of the Philippines for his tertiary education, and later
on continued studying law in San Beda College. Shortly after, he passed the bar
exam.
As a public servant for more than two
decades, he changed Davao City from the "murder capital of The
Philippines" to "the most peaceful city in southeast Asia” and
“World’s 4th Safest City”. Mainly, this is because of the strict rules imposed
by the City Council of Davao with the full support of Mayor Duterte. Among
those rules are the liquor ban in the city from 1:00am to 8:00am; requiring
commercial establishments to set up CCTV cameras; and strict speed limits to
vehicles within Davao City which he plans to implement in the entire nation as
he takes in the Presidential Office on June 30, 2016. Duterte has won many
awards including the National Literacy Hall of Fame for being the Outstanding
Local Government- Highly Urbanized category for three times. But, still there
are some who are doubtful if he can do the same accomplishments in the entire
Philippine archipelago.
After
leading the presidential election with 38.5% of the vote and became the
“Presumptive President of the Philippines”, his way to the presidency wasn’t
that easy. Duterte had been urged to run for the Philippine presidency numerous
times but refused these offers until well into 2015 on the grounds of a
"flawed government system", old age and opposition from his family.
Nevertheless, on November 21, 2015, he declared his candidacy in the 2016
election contest for the office of the President of the Philippines. He was
under fire for his flirty behavior during the campaign period, as well with
plenty of women in his life. He has three children to Elizabeth Zimmerman, his
first wife and been annulled for a long time. Currently, he has a common-law
wife, Cielito Avancena, who is better known as Honeylet. Far from monogamous,
he has publicly admitted to having as many as three girlfriends.
Duterte
also faced several allegations of sexual harassment, after photos of him
kissing women seated on his lap during the election campaign started to spread
locally and have led many to questions on the way he treats women. A lot of
women rights groups filed cases against him at the Philippine Commission on
Human Rights last April 20, accusing him of the violation of the Republic Act
9710 that was created to protect the rights of women. He did not take the
complaints seriously and instead, he told the women rights groups who filed
complaints against him to “go to hell”. He added that he has his freedom of
expression as his constitutional rights, "Not ever. I have a mother, I
have a daughter, I have a wife. Why would I do it? It's not an objective simply
because I am separated from my wife," he said.
On
cursing Pope Francis he said that it wasn’t the Pope he was cursing but the
pontiff’s visit in the Philippines last January 2015 which caused traffic
congestion and immediately apologized publicly. Duterte, however, cancelled his
planned trip to Vatican City and instead wrote a letter to Pope Francis dated
January 21, 2016. During a campaign rally, his camp showed the letter coming
from the Vatican's Secretariat of State, signed by Giovanni Angelo Becciu dated
February 24, stating that Pope Francis had received his letter and that the
Vatican appreciated his apology after allegedly cursing Pope Francis in public.
Duterte
was also the country’s main controversial person after he made a remark about
the rape of an Australian in one of his rallies. Being condemned widely, he
apologized for the incident and acknowledged the comment as “bad remark” saying
he regretted his foul words but would not apologize for being misinterpreted.
He also added that it was due to his extreme anger which ended in such remark
as he recalled the events that followed prior to that hostage-taking incident.
There
is no way the President-Elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte can be stopped from taking
the Presidential Office this coming June 30, 2016. With his slogan, “Change is
Coming” the Filipinos are in big hope that a “radical change” is about to
realize for they are exhausted of the promises from the previous presidents to
stop criminality, drugs and corruption. On the other hand, Duterte said that he
needs the deep cooperation and abidance of the law of the Filipino citizens for
him to do his job well and for “change to come”.
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