Rodrigo Duterte

• Born: March 28, 1945
• Place of Birth: Maasin, Southern Leyte, Philippines

President of the Philippines

Education: Lyceum of the Philippines University, San Beda College

Significance: Rodrigo Duterte became the sixteenth president of the Philippines in June 2016. The oldest person to assume the presidency and the first from Mindanao, his reputation as the ruthless, tough-on-crime mayor of Davao City helped him move from a local office to head of government.

Background

Rodrigo Duterte was born on March 28, 1945, in Maasin, Southern Leyte, Philippines, as one of five children of lawyer Vicente Duterte and teacher Soledad Roa. He spent his early years in Cebu, where his father was the mayor of Danao City. In the 1950s, the family moved to Davao City, on the island of Mindanao, where his father became the governor.

Duterte graduated from Lyceum of the Philippines University with a degree in political science in 1968 and went on to earn a law degree from San Beda College in 1972. After passing the bar examinations the next year, he worked as a special counsel in the City Prosecution Office of Davao City from 1977 to 1979. He became an assistant city prosecutor in Davao City in 1979, serving until 1986.

Political Career

Duterte began his political career as the vice mayor of Davao City in 1986, a position he held until 1988. He was elected mayor in 1988, eventually going on to serve seven terms. His first three terms ran from 1988 to 1998, and he was reelected in 2001, serving until 2010, when he was elected vice mayor once more. In 2013, he began his seventh term as mayor, serving until 2016. Barred by the 1987 constitution from serving for more than three consecutive terms, he stayed active in politics during the interval he could not serve as mayor. After his first three mayoral terms, he was elected to Congress for Davao City’s first district (1998–2001).

During his twenty-two years as mayor, Duterte transformed Davao City from a crime-ridden city into one of the safest areas in the Philippines. In the late 1980s, Davao City was rife with gangs, rebels, and drug smugglers and was referred to as the “murder capital” of the country. Duterte carried out a ruthless campaign to eradicate crime; according to some claims, he authorized extrajudicial killings by vigilantes and death squads that resulted in the deaths of over one thousand suspected criminals. He denied giving such orders, but regardless, his brutal law-and-order tactics earned him the nicknames the Punisher and Duterte Harry, the latter after a crime-fighting inspector in the Dirty Harry films. While human rights groups denounced his tactics, many residents embraced them due to the resulting security of Davao City.

Duterte entered the 2016 presidential race as the PDP-Laban candidate. He drew national—and international—attention for his brazen statements and profanity-laced rhetoric. He cursed Pope Francis for traffic delays caused by his visit and joked he should have been first to join the gang rape of an Australian missionary during a 1989 prison riot in Davao City. His campaign platform focused on his promise to rid the Philippines of criminals within his first six months of office.

Despite his brashness, Duterte appealed to voters dissatisfied with the status quo. While the economy had thrived under President Benigno Aquino III, many people felt they had not benefited personally from the country’s economic growth and that the government was out of touch with their concerns. With his populist antiestablishment messages and reputation for transforming Davao City, Duterte won over many voters.

Duterte won the May 2016 election, receiving 38.56 percent of the votes in an election with an exceptionally high turnout (an estimated 81 percent). Before taking office, he continued to draw attention to his anticrime stance when he offered rewards to people who killed drug dealers. Sworn in on June 30, 2016, he took a more measured stance. In his inaugural address, he promised to respect the rule of law. Yet, the day after taking office, he urged citizens who knew drug addicts to kill them and promised to protect police officers who killed drug dealers and users; he also threatened to eat Islamist militants alive.

During his first three months in office, Duterte made progress on his anticrime pledge, with increased arrests and reported killings of drug suspects (both by police and extrajudicially) and thousands more who turned themselves in to the government. In September 2016, he compared his antidrug campaign to Adolf Hitler’s massacre of Jews and stated he would be happy to kill three million drug smugglers. That same month, he called for a reinstatement of the death penalty.

Duterte insulted world leaders, including members of the European Union and US president Barack Obama. He announced his intention to form closer alliances with Russia and China and to loosen the Philippines’ ties with others, such as by leaving the United Nations and forming an international body with China and African nations. He also announced that the Philippines would be ending its joint military drills with the United States. Foreign investors showed their disapproval of Duterte, with a decline in foreign transactions within his first three months in office.

In an attempted rapprochement with China, Duterte suspended the Philippines' dispute over territory in the South China Sea and received promises of Chinese investment in return. However, little materialized within Duterte's first four years in office, and China continued to make aggressive moves in the South China Sea. Divisions within Duterte's administration over China led to the country shifting back toward the US and increasingly criticizing China by mid-2020.

Duterte continued to meet opposition from human rights activists as well as international organizations such as the Catholic Church and United Nations. He also reportedly threatened journalists and filed lawsuits against some of them for alleged libel. His desire to extend federal power was met with skepticism as well. His ongoing drug war went national and led to a preliminary International Criminal Court (ICC) examination into extrajudicial killings in 2018—and the Philippines exiting that international body a year later. Between July 2016 and October 2020, over 5,800 suspected drug offenders had been killed and over seven thousand kilograms of methamphetamine seized; Duterte asserted that they had died while resisting authorities, in turf wars, or in robberies gone awry.

Amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Duterte quarantined metropolitan Manila beginning in mid-March 2020. He responded to ensuing protests by saying that anyone breaking lockdown would be arrested or shot—a remark that many took as a threat, but officials downplayed. Four other provinces were quarantined thereafter. By late September, the country had been through several lockdowns.

By September 2021, international bodies had continued to raise humanitarian concerns regarding Duterte's drug war, with the UN and others stating that the death toll was even higher than national government reports had indicated. That month, the ICC announced it had authorized a full, formal investigation into the war between 2011 and 2019, which would include the period of Duterte's tenure as Davao City's mayor. Duterte's administration reportedly did not recognize the ICC as having the authority to carry out such an investigation and indicated a declination of cooperation. Despite having earlier stated that he would be entering the vice-presidential race as his term was set to end in 2022, in October 2021, Duterte announced that he had, instead, decided to withdraw from politics once he left office. Duerte endorsed his daughter, Sara, as a vice-presidential candidate in 2022, and she, along with Bongbong Marcos (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) as the presidential candidate, won the election.

In 2024, Duterte once again threw his hat into the ring. Despite his daughter sharing the ticket with President Marcos, the two families were at odds. Duterte and two of his sons were believed to be considering runs for the Senate.

Impact

Duterte was named among Time magazine's hundred most influential people of 2017. Polls show Duterte has had high public approval, but others were not so approving. Human rights organizations and world leaders disapproved of his campaign to eradicate crime through extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals. They also expressed concern about his foreign policy.

Personal Life

Duterte married Elizabeth Zimmerman in the early 1970s. They have three adult children: Sara, Paolo, and Sebastian. Their marriage was annulled in 1998. Duterte lives with his common-law wife, Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña, and they have one child, Veronica. Three of his children are active in politics—Sara succeeded her father as mayor of Davao City in 2010 and again in 2016, while Paolo succeeded his father as vice mayor of Davao City in 2013 and was reelected in 2016 before resigning in 2017; he was elected as a national congressional representative in 2019. Sebastian won election to serve as Davao City's vice mayor in 2019. Sara was elected as vice president in 2022, serving with Bongbong Marcos as president. Duterte has a neuromuscular condition called myasthenia gravis.

Bibliography

“‘Endure Some More’: Philippines Extends Coronavirus Lockdown.” Al Jazeera, 31 July 2020, www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/7/31/endure-some-more-philippines-extends-coronavirus-lockdown. Accessed 12 Oct. 2020. ‌

Gomez, Jim. “Duterte Suspected Extrajudicial Killings in Drug Crackdown.” AP News, Associated Press, 6 Oct. 2020, apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-philippines-archive-manila-rodrigo-duterte-356a3325fe6482d5fd3de19fbb5e0be6. Accessed 12 Oct. 2020.‌

Gomez, Jim. “Marcos Jr Proclaimed Next Philippine President with Huge Win.” AP News, 25 May 2022, apnews.com/article/covid-health-rodrigo-duterte-manila-philippines-c857960bfc0f5b0063b55f1402964936. Accessed 21 Apr. 2023.

Gutierrez, Jason. "Philippines Is Defiant as Hague Court Announces Full Drug War Inquiry." The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/world/asia/philippines-duterte-icc-hague.html. Accessed 3 Nov. 2021.

Heydarian, Richard Javad. “Philippines Election: Why Fatigued Voters Yearn for ‘Strongman’ Leader.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Apr. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/04/26/opinions/philippines-election-analysis. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Holmes, Oliver. “Philippines’ ‘Duterte Harry’: The Would-Be President Accused of Using Vigilante Squads.” The Guardian, 7 May 2016, www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/08/philippines-duterte-harry-the-would-be-president-accused-of-using-death-squads. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Lema, Karen, and Mikhail Flores. "Marcos-Duterte Battle in Focus Ahead of Philippines Midterm Election." Reuters, 1 Oct. 2024, www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/marcos-duterte-battle-focus-philippines-prepares-midterm-election-2024-10-01/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2024.

Luu, Chieu, et al. “Philippines President ‘Ordered Death Squad Hits While Mayor,’ Alleged Hitman Claims.” CNN, Cable News Network, 16 Sept. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/09/15/asia/philippines-duterte-senate-hearing. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

“Profile: Who Is President Rodrigo Duterte?” Philippine Daily Inquirer, 29 June 2016, newsinfo.inquirer.net/793138/profile-rodrigo-duterte. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Villamor, Felipe, and Richard C. Paddock. “Nearly 1,800 Killed in Duterte’s Drug War, Philippine Official Tells Senators.” The New York Times, 22 Aug. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/asia/philippines-rodrigo-duterte.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.

Whaley, Floyd, and Richard C. Paddock. “Rodrigo Duterte’s Many Sides: Brash and Crude or Tough and Shrewd.” The New York Times, 10 May 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines.html. Accessed 7 Oct. 2016.