New Philippine president warns of ‘rough ride’ ahead

Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the Philippines’ 16th president on Thursday, capping an unlikely journey for a provincial city mayor whose brash man-of-the-people style and pledges to crush crime swamped establishment rivals in the May 9 election.
Vice President Leni Robredo, a human rights lawyer who comes from a rival political party, was sworn in earlier in a separate ceremony. Vice presidents are separately elected in the Philippines, and in a sign of Duterte’s go-it-alone style, he has not met her since the May 9 vote.
After making his pledge at the presidential palace in Manila, with one hand on the Bible, Duterte delivered a short speech in which he promised a “relentless” and “sustained” fight against corruption, criminality and illegal drugs.
However, he said these ills were only symptoms of a virulent social disease cutting into the moral fiber of society.
“I see the erosion of the people’s trust in our country’s leaders, the erosion of faith in our judicial system, the erosion of confidence in the capacity of our public servants to make the people’s lives better, safer and healthier,” he said.
Outgoing President Benigno Aquino III brought the country an average annual growth rate of 6.3 percent in his six-year term, the fastest of Southeast Asia’s five main economies.
Duterte said on Thursday that he would give specifics of his economic policies later, but some already fear that his defiance of convention could pose a danger to the country’s health.

Down-to-earth
In a country long ruled by wealthy political clans, Duterte rose from middle-class roots. He built a reputation on the campaign trail with profanity-laced speeches, sex jokes and curses that sideswiped even the widely revered pope and the United Nations.
His brash style has been likened to that of presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, although he detests the comparison and says the American billionaire is a bigot and he’s not.
Duterte is the first president to come from the country’s volatile south, homeland of minority Muslims and scene of a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency, where he said his central Philippine-based family migrated in search of better opportunities.
His informal, down-to-earth demeanor and use of the local dialect and disclosures of his foibles has endeared him to the poor, which make up at least a quarter of the more than 100 million Filipinos.
After his resounding victory, he promised to mellow down on the vulgarity and promised Filipinos will witness a “metamorphosis” once he gets settled in the seat of power.
In keeping with his unsophisticated manner, the inauguration ceremony was far less elaborate than those of his predecessors.
A 21-gun salute welcomed in the new president at Malacanang Palace, a graceful white mansion that was originally built by Spanish colonialists in the 18th century and became the official residence of the president after World War Two.
Very few media organizations were invited to the inauguration ceremony, the upshot of a furor Duterte unleashed recently when he suggested that corrupt journalists were legitimate targets for assassination.

‘Verging on the illegal’
Duterte conceded in his maiden speech that many critics believe his methods of fighting crime “are unorthodox and verge on the illegal.” However, the 71-year-old former prosecutor said that he knew right from wrong and would be uncompromising in adhering to due process and the rule of law.
Duterte was mayor for 22 years of the far-south city of Davao, where, according to human rights groups, death squads have killed at least 1,400 people since 1998, most of them drug-pushers, addicts, petty criminals and street children.
He denies any involvement in the vigilante killings.
Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country’s authoritarian past.
In the few weeks since his landslide election victory there has been a jump in the number of suspected drug dealers shot dead by police and anonymous vigilantes across the country, a sign, critics say, that a spiral of violence has already begun.
“Duterte tapped into a raw nerve in Philippines society about crimes being committed and no one being held responsible,” said Chito Gascon, head of the Commission on Human Rights. “Now you have this momentum for action but the cure could be worse than the disease.”
As well as taming crime, voters will be looking to Duterte to fix the country’s infrastructure, create jobs and lift more than a quarter of the 100 million population out of poverty.
Duterte says he wants to spread wealth more evenly.
But he has also said he will continue Aquino’s economic policies, which focused on infrastructure and fiscal efficiency, to push growth up to 7-8 percent, and analysts say they are encouraged that he plans to delegate this to experienced hands.

Foreign policy
Duterte’s unorthodox style has also sparked questions on how he would handle foreign relations.
He has suggested he will keep the US at arm’s length and has shown readiness to mend frosty ties with China. Those potential shifts have raised the specter of another difficult phase in more than a century of a love-hate relationship between the Philippines and its former colonizer.
“I will be charting a course on its own and will not be dependent on the United States,” he said last month.
A senior Philippine diplomat said American and Australian officials are curious how the new president will handle relations with their governments, which have enjoyed strong ties with outgoing Aquino, who bolstered security relations as a way to counter China’s assertiveness in disputed South China Sea territories.
The Chinese ambassador, on the other hand, has worked hard to repair damaged relations with Manila. He told Filipino diplomats Beijing would extend an invitation to the new president to visit China within the next six months, according to the Philippine diplomat who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to discuss such topic with reporters.
Duterte’s new diplomatic tack provides an opportunity for China to rebuild relations with the Philippines, which under Aquino brought its territorial disputes with Beijing to international arbitration — something China vehemently opposed.
An arbitration tribunal in The Hague is scheduled to rule July 12 on the case, in which the Philippine government questioned the validity of China’s vast territorial claims. China has refused to join the arbitration.
Duterte’s initial policy pronouncements point to potential problems for Washington.
The longtime allies have worked together to counter China’s territorial advances in the South China Sea, including holding joint military exercises.
The Philippines has one of the most underfunded militaries in Asia and its move to seek US help has dovetailed with Washington’s effort to reassert its presence in a region, where China has rapidly expanded its influence.
“Definitely if the Philippines backs away somewhat from supporting the US in the South China Sea, this would be a problem for the US,” said Malcolm Cook, a senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“China likes to present the US as a destabilizing outsider in the South China Sea and in Asia more generally,” he said. “The fewer Asian states that publicly counter this Chinese depiction, the more isolated the US.“

Source : Arab News