Duterte gives self passing mark of “5 or 6” in running gov’t

March 27, 2019

Approaching the mid-point of his administration, President Rodrigo Duterte has given himself a passing mark.

"I will be through in three years...if I rate myself now, I'm about five or six," Duterte said in a speech in Koronadal City on Tuesday night during the campaign rally of the senatorial bets of the ruling PDP-Laban party.

Duterte recalled that when he was still campaigning for the presidency, he promised to address corruption and criminality, including proliferation of illegal drugs.

"But I remember I said, if elected president, I emphasized this during the presidential debates that I will deal with corruption and I will deal with law and order, particularly crimes. Number one is shabu," Duterte said.

Since he assumed the presidency, over 5,000 individuals allegedly involved in illegal drugs have been killed in the anti-drug operations of government forces.

This was on top of the thousands of alleged extrajudicial killings in the country.

Duterte has been hailed to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity because of his bloody war on drugs.

But Duterte insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, including him, because the Rome Statute creating the ICC never became effective in the country due to lack of publication.

In fighting corruption, Duterte has fired several government officials but appropriate charges were yet to be filed against them.

Some appointed officials who were accused of corruption were just transferred to other posts.

Duterte will step down from office on June 30, 2022 after his six-year term. Celerina Monte/DMS