Duterte takes oath as 16th President of PHL

Change is here. 

Rodrigo Roa Duterte is officially the 16th President of the Philippines, the first chief executive of the country to hail from Mindanao. 

Duterte took his oath in English at the Rizal Hall as administered by Supreme Court Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes. 

His 12-year-old daughter Veronica "Kitty" Duterte held the old Bible of the President's mother, Soledad or Nanay Soleng for his oath taking. 

His children with first wife Elizabeth Zimmerman—Paolo, Sara, and Sebastian—stood by his side.  

In his first marching orders to his Cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies, Duterte directed them to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications, and to refrain from changing the rules in government contracts and transactions.

Duterte said these are policies "which cannot wait for tomorrow to be announced."

"I direct all department secretaries and the heads of agencies to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications, from the submission to the release. I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to remove redundant requirements and compliance with one department or agency, shall be accepted as sufficient for all," Duterte said.

"I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to refrain from changing and bending the rules government contracts, transactions and projects already approved and awaiting implementation. Changing the rules when the game is on-going is wrong," he added.

Duterte stressed that he “abhors secrecy and instead advocates transparency" in government contracts and transactions.

Duterte also warned agency heads that they will be sacked from their posts if they fail to fulfill his instructions. "Do them and we will work together. Do not do them and we will part sooner than later."

Duterte, former city mayor of Davao and elected to his post with more than 16 million votes, urged the public to join him in his journey as the new chief executive of the country.

"The ride will be rough but come and join me just the same. Together, shoulder to shoulder, let us take the first wobbly steps in this quest," he said

'I know my limits'

Duterte, meanwhile, assured critics that he will not go beyond his power and authority in his quest against criminality, drug trade, and corruption.

"I ask Congress and the Commission on Human Rights and the others who are similarly situated to allow us a level of governance that is consisted to our mandate. The fight will be relentless and it will be sustained," he said. 

"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. My adherence to the due process and the rule of law is uncompromising. You mind your work and I will mind mine," Duterte stressed.

Nonetheless, the President acknowledged his critics and their opposition on his statements and plans against crimninals.

"I know that there are those who do not approve my methods of fighting criminality, the sale and use of illegal drugs, and corruption. They say that my methods are unorthodox and verged on the illegal. In response, let me say this: I have seen how corruption bled the governmental funds which were allocated in uplifting the poor for the mire they are in. I have seen drugs destroy individuals and ruin family relationships. I have seen how criminality by means all foul snatched from the innocent and the unsuspecting the years and years of accummulated savings, yeard of toil and then suddenly we are back to where these started," he said.

"Look at this from that perspective and tell me that I am wrong," he added.

Raw nerve

Duterte's election campaign focused almost entirely on the scourges of murder, rape, drug abuse and corruption, and voters were not deterred by his repeated warnings, in profanity-peppered speeches, to have offenders killed.

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.

Duterte denies any involvement in the vigilante killings.

But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian 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. —KG/JST, GMA News with Reuters