MANILA, June 30 (Xinhua) — Rodrigo Roa Duterte took his oath of office as the 16th President of the Philippines in Malacanang, the presidential palace in Manila on Thursday.
The former Davao City Mayor won the Philippine presidential election held on May 9, with 16,601,997 votes, a lead of almost 7 million over the second-placer Manuel Roxas.
Following is the profile of Duterte.
Duterte, born on March 28, 1945, in Maasin of central Philippine province of Southern Leyte to Cebuano lawyer Vicente Duterte and Soledadad Roa, a school teacher. Duterte's father was once mayor of Danao in Cebu and then governor of the then undivided Davao province.
Duterte spent most of his elementary school year in Davao city, where he graduated in 1956. He finished his secondary education at the Holy Cross Academy of Digos in Digos City, Davao del Sur after being expelled twice from previous schools.
He received BA degree in political science in 1968 at Lyceum of the Philippines University in Manila. In 1972, he obtained a law degree from San Beda College of Law and passed the bar exam in the same year.
From 1977 to 1979, Duterte became Special Counsel at the City Prosecution Office in Davao City.
From 1979 to 1986, he climbed all the way from Fourth Assistant City Prosecutor to Second Assistant City Prosecutor.
He was elected vice mayor of Davao city in 1986 and then mayor in 1988. He was re-elected twice in 1992 and 1995.
In 1998, because he was term-limited to run again for mayor, he ran for the House of Representatives and won as Congressman of the 1st District of Davao City. In 2001, he ran again for mayor in Davao and was again elected for his fourth term. He was re-elected in 2004 and in 2007.
In 2007 he was elected vice mayor and his daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio, was elected as mayor. He has been Davao city mayor since 2010.
Under Duterte's governing, crime rates dropped drastically and he was nicknamed "the Punisher" for his crime-busting crusade there.
A 2015 Crime Situation Report released by the national police said that from 2010 to 2015, based on total incidents, Davao was top among 15 cities for murder, number two for rape and third for robbery.
With Duterte's efforts, the Davao city council imposed a prohibition on selling, serving, drinking and consuming alcoholic beverages from 01:00 until 08:00 each morning. He signed executive order which reduced the speed limits for all kinds of motor vehicles within the territorial jurisdiction of Davao City in the interest of public safety and order. He also made sure a comprehensive anti-smoking ordinance was carried out smoothly.
On Oct. 16, 2015, on the last day of filing for certificates of candidacy, Duterte did not show up. Martin Dino filed his intent to run for president under Duterte's party, PDP-Laban.
On Oct. 27, PDP-Laban made it official that Duterte will substitute as the party's presidential bet if aspirant Dino withdraws or is disqualified by the Commission of Elections (Comelec). Two days later, Dino officially withdrew his presidential bid and named Duterte as his substitute because of the possibility that Dino might be declared a nuisance candidate by Comelec.
During the presidential campaign period, the general public's crave for change has been very apparent, as they have grown to be disappointed at the country struck by poverty, corruption and public security crises.
Most of the voters interviewed by Xinhua said they want the new president to lead a fast developing country that is corruption free and an improved social security net.
Duterte embodied the hope of change to many Filipinos.
He has been leading most of the opinion polls since April. Some 33 percent of the voters said they would vote for Duterte in the final pre-election survey conducted by Social Weather Station.
The country's renowned polling body carried out the survey from May 1 to May 3 through face-to-face interviews with 4,500 validated voters nationwide with a sampling error margin of 1 point.
In some campaign activities, he vowed to wipe out corruption, drugs and criminality in three to six months if he wins the election.
His aggressive behavior and offensive language won him a lot of supporters, but aroused concerns and controversy as well.
The outgoing president Aquino has warned repeatedly the risk for the country to fall under a dictatorship if citizens voted Duterte.
Duterte is the first president to be nationally elected without a previous national position.
After Emilio Aguinaldo, Duterte is the second non-resident of Metro Manila to become president.
He was married to Elizabeth A. Zimmerman from 1973 to 2001. His current partner is Cielito Avancena.
