Ron Mia
A couple of days before his inauguration as the 16th President of the Philippines, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte seems to be backing down from his campaign promise to end criminality in three to six months.
In his last flag-raising ceremony speech before the employees of Davao City Hall on Monday, June 27, Duterte made no mention about his campaign promise but emphasized more on the battle against “narco-politics.”
“If drugs will not be solved in time, the next elections will be about narco-politics. We will be like Mexico,” said Duterte.
“You can’t solve what ails this country by killing people. But I have to solve this problem or else we’ll have narco-politics in seven years,” Duterte added.
During the campaign season, Duterte repeatedly stressed his promise to end criminality in about three to six months. He even dared people to kill him if he failed to end criminality as promised.
“If I succeed perhaps that would be my greatest contribution to the country, but if I fail, kill me,” Duterte said during a book launching at Century Park Hotel in Manila last January.
But shortly after winning the May 2016 elections, Duterte admitted he can only address or suppress criminality but not stop it.
“I will control or suppress crime. I cannot stop it, because there are crimes you can hardly stop,” he admitted during a press conference on May 15.
