Manila – Anti-establishment firebrand Rodrigo Duterte took an early lead in the Philippine presidential election vote count on Monday, the nation’s media said, after an incendiary campaign dominated by his profanity-laced threats to kill criminals.
The elections also saw Filipinos choose more than 18,000 other positions, down to the local village councillor level, in another milestone for a nation that has struggled to cement democracy after emerging from dictatorship three decades ago.
Duterte, the longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, had hypnotised millions with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to the nation’s twin plagues of crime and poverty, which many believed had worsened despite strong economic growth in recent years.
And his big lead in pre-election surveys appeared to be carried into election day, according to early and unofficial tallies of the vote carried by national media.
Duterte had 1.31 million votes, nearly double his nearest rival, with about eight percent of the total counted, according to CNN Philippines, which was tallying data released by the election commission.
Duterte gave a cautious assessment when asked on CNN Philippines about the early results.
“I ain’t there until I am there,” he said. “If it is my destiny to be there then I accept it.” Senator Grace Poe was in second place with 757,000 votes, with administration candidate Mar Roxas trailing closely in third, CNN Philippines said.
Other major news outlets carried similar results.
AFP, Reuters
Duterte, a pugnacious 71-year-old, surged from outsider to the top of surveys with cuss-filled vows to kill tens of thousands of criminals, threats to establish one-man rule if lawmakers disobeyed him, and promises to embrace communist rebels.
He also boasted repeatedly about his Viagra-fuelled affairs, while promising voters his mistresses would not cost a lot because he kept them in cheap boarding houses and took them to short-stay hotels for sex.
Duterte caused further disgust in international diplomatic circles with a joke that he wanted to rape a “beautiful” Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 Philippine prison riot, and by calling the pope a “son of a whore”.
Departing President Benigno Aquino, whose mother led the democracy movement that ousted Ferdinand Marcos three decades ago, had warned repeatedly the nation was at risk of succumbing to another dictatorship.
“I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone,” Aquino said in an appeal to voters in a final rally on Saturday in Manila for his preferred successor and fellow Liberal Party stalwart, Mar Roxas.
In his final rally on Saturday, Duterte repeated to tens of thousands of cheering fans his plans to end crime within six months of starting his presidency.
“Forget the laws on human rights,” said Duterte, who has been accused of running vigilante death squads in Davao.
“If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because as the mayor, I’d kill you.” Duterte went into polling day with an 11-percentage-point lead over his rivals.
Roxas, who promised to continue the slow reform process seen under Aquino, was tied for second place with Poe.
Aquino, who is limited by the constitution to a single term of six years, had overseen average annual economic growth of six percent and won international plaudits for trying to tackle corruption.
However his critics said he had done little to change an economic model that favours an extraordinarily small number of families that control nearly all key industries, and has led to one of Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides.
Roxas belongs to one of those families, with his grandfather serving as the Philippines’ first president after the nation achieved independence from the United States post-World War II.
Poe, the adopted daughter of movie stars, had seen her popularity slide after critics pointed to her taking US citizenship then later giving it up.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, the early favourite, fell to fourth place in surveys under the weight of a barrage of corruption allegations. The early unofficial tally of Monday’s vote also placed him fourth.
In an intriguing sub-plot, Marcos’s son and namesake was equal favourite to be elected vice president, which would cement a remarkable political comeback for his family.
The Philippines has an infamous culture of political violence, and at least 10 people were killed on election day. Fifteen people had been killed in pre-election shootings and bombings, according to police.
But authorities described Monday’s violence as isolated incidents and that the overall conduct of the elections was peaceful.
