Duterte sworn in as president of Philippines

MANILA — Mr Rodrigo Duterte has been sworn in as president of the Philippines, with some hoping his maverick style will energise the country but others fearing he will undercut one of Asia's liveliest democracies amid threats to kill criminals en masse.

Mr Duterte, a 71-year-old former prosecutor and longtime mayor of southern Davao city, won the election in May in his first foray into national politics. He took his oath of office on Thursday (June 30) to start a six-year term.

Defying convention, Duterte took his oath before a small audience inside the Malacanang presidential palace, instead of at a big public rally like previous Filipino leaders.

"No leader however strong can succeed at anything of national importance and significance unless he has the support and cooperation of the people he is tasked to lead," Mr Duterte said after being sworn in.

His anti-crime programme includes plans to reintroduce the death penalty, issuing shoot-to-kill orders to the security services and offering them bounties for the bodies of drug dealers. He has also told ordinary Filipinos to kill suspected criminals.

He told the nation that he would wage a "relentless" and "sustained" battle against crime and warned officials that he would not tolerate corruption. In his acceptance speech, Mr Duterte said there had been an erosion of trust in the country's leaders and people were hungry for change.

His inauguration ceremony took place at the Malacanang Palace in Manila where only state media was allowed to attend. 

Ahead of the ceremony, incoming Communications Minister Martin Andanar had said: "It's going to be totally different. It's not going to be champagne bottles popping and cheese." There will be no sumptuous banquet, Mr Andanar said, but there will be several homely dishes that showcase the country's culinary heritage, including coconut pith spring rolls, a white cheese made from unskimmed carabao's milk and durian tartlets.

For drinks, guests will have a choice between a pine-mango cooler and the juice of a local orange called dalandan.

The country's new vice-president, Leni Robredo, was sworn in at a separate but simultaneous ceremony.

Watch the Mr Duterte's inaguration ceremony here:

Mr Duterte, who begins a six-year term as president, captured attention with promises to cleanse the poor South-east Asian nation of criminals and government crooks within six months — an audacious pledge that was welcomed by many crime-weary Filipinos but alarmed human rights watchdogs and the influential Roman Catholic church.

Shortly after Mr Duterte's election win, policemen launched an anti-drug crackdown under his name, leaving dozens of mostly poor drug-dealing suspects dead in gunfights with police or in mysterious circumstances.

Days before his swearing in, Mr Duterte was threatening criminals with death if they wouldn't reform.

"If you destroy my country, I will kill you," he said in a warning to criminals in a speech during the last flag-raising ceremony he presided as mayor in Davao city this week. 

Vice President Leni Robredo, a human rights lawyer who comes from a rival political party, was sworn in earlier in a separate ceremony. Vice presidents are separately elected in the Philippines, and in a sign of Mr Duterte's go-it-alone style, he has not met her since the May 9 vote.

In a country long ruled by wealthy political clans, Mr Duterte rose from middle-class roots. He built a reputation on the campaign trail with profanity-laced speeches, sex jokes and curses that sideswiped even the widely revered pope and the United Nations.

His brash style has been likened to that of presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, although he detests the comparison and says the American billionaire is a bigot and he's not.

Mr Duterte is the first president to come from the country's volatile south, homeland of minority Muslims and scene of a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency, where he said his central Philippine-based family migrated in search of better opportunities.  AGENCIES