THE NEWS AND INFORMATION BUREAU, MALACANANG PALACE VIA AP
nals without trial, though a 2009 probe into that issue never
reached court. The city also became safer around 2001 after
the alleged heyday of death squads, people living there say.
“If there are foreign diplomats, he should act presiden-
tial,” Abasolo says, noting that Duterte was cordial during
a Southeast Asian regional tourism event in Davao earlier
this year. “If you want the mayor to sound bad, let him face
a criminal. But if you want to get the good qualities and the
brilliance, let him talk to a learned person. He is the face of
the Filipinos now.”
About 39% of Filipinos voted for Duterte over four other
presidential candidates, including Manila beltway people, on
May 9, largely because they liked his tough, crude talk, such
as pledges to eradicate rising crime nationwide within six
months and jet-ski to a shoal disputed with China. But even
enthusiastic voters want him to tone things down.
Duterte shunned profanity and wild promises in his inau-
guration speech. But he still bared his teeth. He warned gov-
ernment departments to be transparent, saying he “abhors
secrecy.” And he vowed to follow the law, an apparent rebut-
tal of allegations about the use of death squads in Davao.
“As a lawyer and former prosecutor, I know the limits of the
powers of the president,” he said. “You mind your work, and
I will mind mine. I know what is legal and what is not.”
But a few hours after his inauguration Duterte gave a
late-night speech to a crowd in Manila, saying, according to
Agence France-Presse, “If you know of any [drug] addicts, go
ahead and kill them yourself.”W
hen he was Philippine
president-elect, Rodrigo
Duterte used the F-word
in a speech in early June
while telling journalists
what not to do with him. In the same address
the man known as a crime-busting mayor of the
country’s second-largest city likened the odds of
his apologizing to a journalist to the excrement
of a large male barnyard animal. The mix of pro-
fanity with threats was classic Duterte. He was
known for that kind of discourse when chastising
criminals in his southern hometown, Davao, earn-
ing a reputation for unpredictability that helped
him deter theft, drug sales and police corruption
during his 22 years as mayor.
“All that I have to do is to research your life and
the life of your children, and I will just put it there,” Duterte
said June 4 after the French advocacy group Reporters With-
out Borders called for legal action and a boycott of Duterte’s
press conferences until he apologized for a comment sug-
gesting that corrupt journalists could be murder targets.
On June 30 the 71-year-old lawyer and former prosecutor
took office as president of the Philippines. About a quarter
of the Southeast Asian archipelago’s 102 million people live
in poverty. The government is testing the patience of China
over a disputed maritime claim. And three Muslim rebel
groups occasionally stage deadly attacks in the southern
Philippines despite a fragile peace deal. Under those pres-
sures and public expectations to act more like a president
than a tough-talking, rough-hewn mayor, Duterte is expected
to close the dictionary of threats and epithets.
And he plans to meet those expectations during his six-
year term, says Bogs Abasolo, a publicist for the city of Davao.
He will particularly conform when meeting foreign officials,
whose visits could bring investment from overseas and help
sustain last year’s 5.8% economic growth. “The bad-mouth-
ing, all the curses that he uttered during public engage-
ments, will not happen when he meets foreign diplomats,”
Abasolo says. Previous outbursts occurred because Duterte
was angry about conditions in the country such as crime,
the publicist adds. During the campaign he threatened to
kill tens of thousands of criminals and said he would ask to
reinstate the death penalty. Many suspect that as mayor he
used death squads to kill between 1,000 and 1,400 crimi-Trump 1.0
Philippine President Duterte takes office with a legacy of profanity and threats.
BY RALPH JENNINGSFORBES ASIA
NEW MAN IN MANILAJULY 2016 FORBES ASIA | 19FDuterte tries a different form of swearing at his inauguration, with daughter.