MANILA/ agencies
Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the President on Thursday, after promising a ruthless and deeply controversial war on crime as the main focus of his six-year term.
After the oath Rodrigo Roa Duterte, invited people to join him in the ride, as he vowed to restore public trust in government and its leaders.
He would do this, he said, by coming down hard on the corrupt and keeping his campaign promise to curb criminality, particularly the drug menace.
Change is coming, he said, but change, “to be permanent and significant, must start with us and in us.”
“The ride will be rough, but come and join me just the same,” he said. “Together, let us take the first wobbly steps in this quest.”
Later in his speech, he asked everyone “to join me as we embark on this crusade for a better and brighter tomorrow.” He was applauded 22 times.
“The fight will be relentless, and it will be sustained,” Duterte promised in a 14-minute speech at Malacañang’s Rizal Hall. As he had promised, his speech was free of profanities.
Addressing concerns about his “unorthodox” methods that “verge on the illegal” in fighting crime, he stressed that being a lawyer and former prosecutor, “I know the limits of the power and authority of the president. I know what is legal and what is not.”
“My adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising,” he said as he told critics, notably the Commission on Human Rights, to “mind your work and I will mind mine.”
His anti-crime programme includes plans to reintroduce the death penalty and issuing shoot-to-kill orders to the security services. Duterte won last month’s presidential elections in a landslide.
Only state media were permitted to cover the event, but it was streamed live online.
He told the audience he would tackle an “erosion of the people’s trust” in the leaders, the judiciary and public servants.
He added: “As a lawyer and a former prosecutor, I know the limits of the power and authority of the president. I know what is legal and what is not.”
“I know that there are those who do not approve of my methods of fighting criminality. They say that my methods are unorthodox and verge on the illegal.
“My adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising. You mind your work and I will mind mine.”
He also promised to honour international treaties and respect peace deals agreed with rebels at home.
photo: The Philippine Star