Rodrigo Duterte took the Oath of Office as the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines as he is sworn in by Supreme Court Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes during the inauguration ceremony at the Rizal Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang Palace in Manila on Thursday afternoon, June 30, 2016.
In a televised ceremony, the 71-year old Duterte, the seven-term mayor of the southern city of Davao, became the first ever president from Mindanao in Philippine history since the first Republic was inaugurated in Malolos, Bulacan, Luzon, in January 1899.
Duterte, who wore a barong Tagalog, took his oath before Justice Reyes, a fraternity brod, at exactly 12 noon following the Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines.
His common-law wife Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña was present during the inauguration. His ex-wife Elizabeth Zimmerman and children Paolo, Sara and Sebastian were also present.
The inauguration was witnessed by former presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada (reelected mayor of Manila), members of the diplomatic corps, incoming Cabinet members and the country's lawmakers.
After his oathtaking, Duterte signed his oath of office and delivered his inaugural address and administered the mass oathtaking of his Cabinet members.
Full military honors were given to the new Chief Executive at around 1 p.m. before holding his first official Cabinet meeting at around 2 p.m.
It was the fourth Philippine presidential inauguration that was held in Malacañang, the second scheduled since the fourth inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos, held in the midst of 1986 People Power Revolution.
Early Thursday, Duterte arrived at the Palace around 10:30 a.m. and was welcomed by outgoing President Benigno Aquino III. He signed the guest book as Aquino’s last guest.
Afterwards, Duterte and Aquino stepped out of the Palace for the departure honors for the outgoing president, after which the latter departed to his residence in Times Street, Quezon City while Duterte ascended the grand staircase as his predecessors did.
Inside the Rizal Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang Palace, the program began with the Philippine National Anthem, followed by an ecumenical prayer, musical number by Duterte supporter, Filipino folk singer Freddie Aguilar, and reading of the Resolution of Both Houses No.1 by Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, reiterating the May 30 proclamation of Duterte as winner in the May 9 elections.
During the campaign period, Duterte repeatedly vowed to curb corruption and criminality within three to six months of his term.
Duterte vowed to deliver his promise despite opposition. Among the immediate policies he wants implemented are a nationwide curfew for children, a stringent anti-illegal drugs campaign and a crackdown on crime.
In his inaugural speech before 627 guests as the 16th Philippine President, Duterte vowed to fortify Filipinos’ faith in government.
"I was elected to serve. I serve everyone and not only one,” he underlined, citing the need to fortify the faith of Filipinos in government to win back their trust.
“We have to listen to the people and fortify their faith. Erosion of trust and faith in government—that is the real problem that confronts us. Erosion of faith in our judicial leaders and erosion of capacity in our public servants to make people safer and healthier,” the president said.
Duterte reiterated his promise to end criminality and corruption in government.
“Crimes have to be stopped by all means that the law allows,” he said.
While many disagree on his methods of fighting criminality, he said the government needs to do everything to win back the trust of the people.
“The urgent problems of the country are corruption, criminality, and the rampant sale of illegal [drugs],” he said.
Duterte further said that he will give the specifics of his economic and political policies in “due time” but there are some that require immediate action that cannot wait until tomorrow.
The first among these actions is his plan to streamline processes in all government agencies.
“I direct all dept secretaries to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications from the submission to release,” he said during his first speech as President of the Republic of the Philippines.
He ordered his Cabinet members to remove “redundant requirements.”
Duterte also warned them against “changing and bending the rules of government contracts, transactions and projects already approved and awaiting implementation.”
He said that he “abhors” secrecy and “advocates” transparency in all government contracts.
Duterte will be the fourth President — after 55 years — from outside Luzon, the country’s vote-richest island and home to 12 Presidents.
Three other Presidents hailed from the Visayas, as can be gleaned from the Presidential Museum and Library website: Sergio Osmena of Cebu City who served from August 1, 1944 to May 28, 1946,; Manuel Acuña
Roxas of Capiz (renamed Roxas City) from May 28, 1946 to April 15, 1948; and Carlos Polistico Garcia of Talibon, Bohol, from March 18, 1957 to December 30, 1961.
Duterte is the second city mayor to rise to the Presidency after Joseph Estrada (1998-2001) and the 9th lawyer after 30 years. The last lawyer-President was Ferdinand Edralin Marcos who was elected in 1965, reelected in 1969, declared martial law in 1972 and was ousted by People Power in 1986.
Two Mindanawons were a heartbeat away from the Presidency: Emmanuel Neri Pelaez who was elected Vice President (1961 to 1965) to President Diosdado Macapagal and Teofisto Tayko Guingona who was appointed (2001 to 2004) by then newly-assumed President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Duterte traces his roots to the Visayas but makes it a point in every campaign sortie to say his grandmother was a Maranao and he has grandchildren who are Tausug.
He was born on March 28, 1945 in Maasin, Southern Leyte to Vicente Duterte, a government worker, and Soledad Roa, a public school teacher.
Duterte spent his early years in Danao, Cebu. But the promise of a better life lured the young Duterte couple to move to Mindanao, then touted to be the “Land of Promise.”
No other Duterte held an elective post until 1988 when Rodrigo, OIC Vice Mayor of Davao City from 1986 to 1988, ran for mayor.
When People Power ousted the Marcoses in 1986 and the Cory Aquino administration appointed OICs for local government posts, Zafiro Respicio was appointed OIC mayor while Duterte’s mother, Soledad, was named OIC Vice Mayor.
But Soledad, who was active in the Yellow Friday Movement following the August 1983 assassination of former Senator Benigno Aquino, declined the offer, suggesting his son, Rodrigo, instead.
Rodrigo was then a prosecutor at the City Fiscal’s Office.
After serving as OIC Vice Mayor from 1986 to 1988, Duterte ran and won against Respicio for mayor in the first post-Marcos election in 1988. He was reelected in 1992 and 1995.
Since the law allows only three consecutive terms, Duterte ran for Congress in the first district, serving there from 1998 to 2001, a three-year term he described as “boring.”
He made a comeback for mayor in the 2001 elections, was reelected in 2004 and 2007. From 2010 to 2013, he was vice mayor to his daughter-mayor Sara, and in 2013, ran again for mayor, his seventh term, with son Paolo as vice mayor.
He has not lost an election since he joined politics.
As requested by Duterte due to some reasons, Leni Robredo, was inaugurated as the 14th Vice President of the Philippines, in a separate location at the Quezon City Reception House, (formerly known as Boracay Mansion).
Ronaldo Coner, the chief of Barangay Punta Tarawal, Calabanga -- the poorest barangay in Robredo's hometown Camarines Sur -- administered Robrido's oath. Only 300 guests were invited to Robredo's inauguration. Her inauguration pushed through despite the election protest filed by her closest rival, Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong"
Marcos Jr.
Marcos, who lost to Robredo by only around 200,000 votes, accused the former congresswoman's camp of committing "traditional election abuses" that supposedly paved the way for her victory.
Ms. Robredo, who had lived a relatively private life as a lawyer, was thrust into the limelight and her husband late interior and local government secretary Jesse Robredo's political shoes following his death in a plane crash in August 2012.
In 2013, she ran, although reluctantly, and won as congresswoman of the first district of Camarines Sur, toppling the nearly 40-year reign of the influential Villafuerte clan.
After just one term in Congress, Robredo's Liberal Party (LP) allies led by erstwhile President Benigno S. Aquino III convinced her to try a higher position.
In her inaugural speech, Robredo said the doors of the Office of the Vice Presidency are always open.
"Ours will be a listening office. We seek to unite the government and the private sector in a partnership for change, for those at the fringes of society that we have vowed to serve. Our plan is to create partnerships between the government and the private sector towards real change," she said.
Robredo identified hunger and food security, universal health care, rural development, education and people empowerment as her main priorities.
"In these areas, there is no time to lose because every day, there is real suffering on the ground. Our dream is to make a head way on easing that suffering as soon as we can. Join me," she said.
In our first 100 days, the vice president plans to once again go to the farthest and the smallest barangays to pray with you, to laugh and cry with you, and most of all to listen to the things that you want changed.
"This is what we did in Naga City and in our district—the place where I was born, where I built a family with the love of my life, the place that formed my awareness of society’s problems, and calcified in my mind the solutions that work best. The place that gave birth to myself as a public servant."
As requested by Duterte due to some reasons, Leni Robredo, was inaugurated as the 14th Vice President of the Philippines, in a separate location at the Quezon City Reception House, (formerly known as Boracay Mansion).
She recalled her late husband's saying when the latter was alive: “What brings us together as a nation is far more powerful than what pulls us apart.”
She concluded her speech by saying that "during these times of conflict, unity is most important for our nation. We may come from different walks of life or different advocacies, but our dreams are the same: that each Filipino will live a dignified, prosperous life. This moment, today, is the start of the fulfillment of these dreams." MGP News
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