 | ||
The Presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, also known as Rodrigo Duterte Administration, began on June 30, 2016 following his inauguration as the 16th President of the Philippines, succeeding Benigno Aquino III. Congresswoman Leni Robredo from the 3rd district of Camarines Sur also took office as the 14th Vice President of the Philippines on the same day, succeeding Jejomar Binay.
Contents
Rodrigo Duterte is the first president from Mindanao and the oldest person to be elected president of the Philippines. He is also the first graduate of Lyceum of the Philippines University and San Beda College of Law to become president, the first president who had his marriage annulled, the first motorcycle-riding president, the second Cebuano to become president (the first being Sergio Osmeña), the third Cebuano-speaking to become president (the first being Osmeña and second was Carlos P. Garcia), the fourth Visayan to become president (the first was Osmeña, second was Manuel Roxas, and the third was Garcia) and the third mayor (of Davao City in his case) to be elected president (the first former-mayor president was Emilio Aguinaldo of Cavite El Viejo, and the second was Joseph Estrada of San Juan, Metro Manila).
Transition
Duterte's presidential transition began on May 30, 2016 when the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed his candidacy the winner of the 2016 Philippine presidential election held on May 9, 2016. Duterte's transition team was in charge of preparing the new presidential residence, cabinet appointments and cordial meetings between them and the outgoing administration. At the time the transition team was organized, Duterte was leading by a significant margin at the unofficial count by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).
The transition lasted until the day of Duterte's inauguration on June 30, 2016.
Inauguration
The inauguration of Rodrigo Duterte as the sixteenth President of the Philippines took place on June 30, 2016 at the Rizal Ceremonial Hall of the Malacañang Palace in Manila. The oath of office was administered by Bienvenido L. Reyes, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
It was the fourth Philippine presidential inauguration to be held in Malacañang, the second since the fourth inauguration of Ferdinand Marcos that was held in the middle of the 1986 People Power Revolution.
July
Shortly after his inauguration, Duterte held his first Cabinet meeting to lay out his plans for the Cabinet, which included the establishment of a 24-hour complaint office covering the entire country and advancing the country's disaster risk reduction management, lamenting its current status after recalling his personal encounter with the previous administration's failure to address the lack of basic needs of the victims of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013. He laid out his plan to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the country's main gateway, by transferring the operations of domestic flights to Clark International Airport in Angeles, Pampanga and constructing a road network between Angeles and Manila while his government reviews the possibility of constructing a new airport at the Naval Station Sangley Point in Cavite. He also advised the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines not to provide him and his Cabinet officials with special priority treatment different from ordinary citizens. Duterte pointed out the healthcare in the Philippines, saying that the country could learn from the healthcare in Cuba and ordered his Health Secretary, Paulyn Ubial, to travel to Cuba. Occurring twelve days prior to the announcement of the outcome of the Philippines' arbitration case against China over the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, Duterte said that he and his Foreign Secretary, Perfecto Yasay, Jr., will study the implications of the ruling in order to better plan any further steps taken by the government to address the issue. Duterte also expressed his willingness to stop the online gambling industry. After the Cabinet meeting, President Duterte met with representatives from militant groups to discuss the "People’s Agenda for Change" plan.
On July 1, 2016, a day after the inauguration, President Duterte attended the change-of-command ceremonies for the new Philippine National Police chief Ronald de la Rosa and the new Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Ricardo Visaya. During the AFP's change-of-command rites, Duterte personally and briefly met his Vice President Leni Robredo for the first time.
Robredo later paid a courtesy call on Duterte in the Malacañang Palace on July 4, 2016. Three days later, Duterte appointed Robredo to a Cabinet position (as the head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council). Duterte earlier said that he had no plans to appoint Robredo to a Cabinet position due to his unfamiliarity with her and his friendship with Bongbong Marcos, Robredo's closest rival in the vice presidential election. (In relation to this friendship with Marcos, Duterte had earlier announced on May 23 that he would make good his campaign promise to allow the immediate transfer of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' remains from the former President's home province to the Libingan ng mga Bayani [Heroes' Cemetery]. The controversial burial with honors has been scheduled for September).
President Duterte issued his first executive order on July 4, entitled "Reengineering the Office of the President Towards Greater Responsiveness to the Attainment of Development Goals". In the executive order, 12 agencies under the Office of the President who focused on anti-poverty programs, including Cooperative Development Authority, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, National Food Authority, National Youth Commission, Office of the President-Presidential Action Center, Philippine Coconut Authority, Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor, Philippine Commission on Women, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, will be placed under the supervision of Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco, Jr.
On July 5, 2016, President Duterte bared the five top police officials who were allegedly involved in illegal drug trade, calling them as "protectors" of drug lords and syndicates, during the celebration of the 69th anniversary of the Philippine Air Force at Clark Air Base in Pampanga. In a televised press conference on July 7, 2016, Duterte revealed that Marcelo Garbo, one of the accused police generals is a protector of three big time drug lords namely, Wu Tuan alias Peter Co, Peter Lim alias Jaguar and Herbert Colangco alias Ampang.
On July 8, 2016, President Duterte went back to Davao City to witness the Mindanao Hariraya Eid’l Fitr 2016 convention, coinciding with the end of the Ramadan season. The convention was attended by different Muslim communities in Mindanao. Duterte said he will end insurgency and war conflicts in the Mindanao, before the term ends, through peace negotiations between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and other Moro groups. Duterte noted that the intervention of foreign countries, including the United States, caused the worsened war situation in the Middle East countries including Iraq and Libya.
On July 12, 2016, President Duterte has named Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran as the "Anti-Red Tape Czar". The following day, Duterte met with House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., and her daughter, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, the top officials of the Asian Development Bank and Cebu Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal for a series of courtesy calls and meetings. On July 14, President Duterte attended the thanksgiving dinner organized by his fellow alumni from the San Beda College of Law at the Club Filipino, San Juan. President Duterte has offered former President Fidel V. Ramos to become the Philippines' special envoy to China on the planned bilateral talks between two countries, in connection with the ongoing South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) dispute.
On July 18, 2016, President Duterte, together with Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Butch Ramirez and Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Jose Cojuangco Jr., led the send-off ceremonies for the Philippine delegation in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the Rizal Hall of Malacañang. After the send-off, Duterte met with Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach for a courtesy call to discuss the possibility of the Philippines hosting next year's Miss Universe. Two days before his first State of the Nation Address, on July 23, President Duterte signed the Freedom of Information Order that covered all offices under the executive branch.
On July 25, 2016, President Duterte delivered his first State of the Nation Address.
On July 27, 2016, President Duterte met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry, the first foreign minister Duterte met with as president and the highest ranking diplomat he met with since his inauguration, to discuss cooperation between the Philippines and the United States under the Duterte administration following the Permanent Court of Arbitration's ruling in favor of the Philippines against China's claim over the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. Later that day, the first National Security Council meeting under the Duterte presidency was held. It was attended by former presidents and NSC members Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III, together with Vice President Leni Robredo, Senate President Koko Pimentel, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, and other cabinet secretaries.
August
On August 1, 2016, President Duterte led a mass oath-taking ceremony of 23 newly appointed government officials. Shortly after the oath taking, Duterte made a press conference to the journalists of the privately-owned media outfits, the first since Duterte announced his so-called boycott on media.
On August 7, 2016, President Duterte, who was at the wake of four soldiers killed in an encounter with communist rebels in Camp Panacan, Davao City, delivered his I am sorry for my country speech wherein he named local government officials, court judges and police officers who are all involved in illegal drug trade.
Supreme Court Appointments
Duterte appointed the following to the Supreme Court of the Philippines:
- Justice Samuel R. Martires - March 6, 2017
- Justice Noel G. Tijam - March 8, 2017
Trust ratings
Two weeks into Duterte's presidency, on July 13, 2016, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) conducted the first survey on his presidency since his inauguration on June 30, where Duterte received an "excellent" trust rating of 79% among 1,200 adults nationwide. A week later, on July 20, Pulse Asia released a poll conducted on July 2–8 which showed that 91% of Filipinos trust Duterte, making him the most trusted official in the Philippines since 1999, according to Pulse Asia.