Duterte to run for president

MANILA: Rodrigo Duterte, whose hardline stance on crime as mayor of Davao City has made him a national figure in the Philippines, will seek to run for president in what’s likely to become a five-way race.

Mr Duterte said he would make eliminating illegal drugs a priority of his presidency. He advised “people to put up several funeral parlour businesses” to deal with the drug traffickers that he planned to target, the Philippine Star reported, citing comments he made on Thursday.

Weeks after the deadline for politicians to declare their candidacies, Mr Duterte is trying to enter the presidential race by replacing a registered contender from the Philippine Democratic Party-People’s Power (PDP-Laban Party). He is also abandoning his original plan to seek another term as mayor of Davao on the southern island of Mindanao.

“The certificate of candidacy was filed by his lawyer in Manila,” Mr Duterte’s executive assistant Bong Go said by phone. “He also withdrew his candidacy for mayor” of Davao to run for president and will be replaced by his daughter, Sara, in the Davao race.

Mr Duterte has served more than two decades as mayor of Davao, which was known as the nation’s murder capital during the rule of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Under Mr Duterte, Davao has become one of the country’s safest and more prosperous cities. That peace and order came at a cost, according to Human Rights Watch, which has accused him of giving tacit support to extra judicial killings of more than 1,000 suspected criminals since the late 1990s. Mr Duterte calls the allegations “a myth”.

Mr Duterte joins Mar Roxas, President Benigno Aquino’s preferred successor, Vice-President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, a former judge.