DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Incoming Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his Cabinet to observe an austere lifestyle, including chucking luxury cars and sumptuous food during meetings.

No luxury trips or extravagant dining, just economy commutes and simple meals like those enjoyed by an everyday Filipino.

These “perks” await members of the incoming Cabinet of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte as the longtime Davao City mayor, known for his strict regulations on the use of public funds, has decreed a frugal governance style.

“[He said] no luxury vehicles, take economy class [flights], and don’t use government funds for junkets. So I’m happy with that kind of announcement, because I think that’s a good start,” said Judy Taguiwalo, Duterte’s chosen Social Welfare secretary.

Austerity is “very important” for Duterte, according to his spokesperson, Salvador Panelo.

“He said people are paying taxes. When we buy any item, we pay tax. And he said if we take business class (flights) even if we personally spend for it because we can afford it, people won’t see that. What they will see is we are taking business class because they are paying for it,” Panelo said.

“And you can take economy … and there are so many people who are struggling,” he said.

Camry, not Mercedes Benz

For Panelo, his boss’ rule meant giving up his two-door Mercedes Benz for the time being. The longtime lawyer now uses his less expensive sedan, a Toyota Camry.

“I’m even thinking of taking the jeepney,” Panelo said, adding that he would have to hang the Louis Vuitton sling bag he uses regularly when he formally takes office.

“We are all 100 per cent agreeable with the policy of the President-elect. Even taking luxury cars-because many of us have luxury cars-but we agree. That’s just right so people can’t say anything to us,” he said.

He cited as an example Duterte’s meeting with his appointees on Tuesday at the presidential guesthouse here, where he said simple snacks were served.

“I think I got to eat only candy during the meeting. I think it really was austere, but that’s OK, unlike in previous administrations when what was served were really sumptuous food. This one, it’s not like that. Mayor Duterte is very consistent,” Panelo said.

No pork barrel

Incoming Education Secretary Leonor Briones said Duterte was clear on one other thing: no pork barrel.

“He said he did not want pork barrel. He went as far as saying that he would abolish Congress [if it persisted],” Briones said.

The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) was abolished under the Aquino administration after the unraveling of a 10-billion-peso (S$295 million) scam that diverted state funds to dubious nongovernment organisations.

Also among Duterte’s marching orders was his staunch anticorruption drive. He said in Tuesday’s briefing that his known record of stamping out corruption was the reason 16.6 million Filipinos voted for him.

“We’re losing 300 million pesos a day to smuggling. So I think if we stop that, it will be additional funds for health, education, housing,” he said.

Immigration bureau

Duterte said as much to the incoming immigration chief, Jaime Morente.

“I will just be guided by the incoming President to remove corruption and make the bureau efficient,” said Morente, a former police chief of Davao City, when asked what directive he had received from his boss.

Duterte has marked the Bureau of Immigration as among the most corrupt, along with agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs and the Land Transportation Office.

“I’m very honoured, of course, although the task is heavy… But I have to do my best to satisfy the requirement of the incoming President,” Morente told reporters on Tuesday night after Duterte’s meeting with his appointees.

Translating growth for the poor

The first order of business for Ernesto Pernia, incoming chief of the National Economic and Development Authority, would be to translate the Philippines’ consistent economic growth into progress that would benefit the poor.

“What we need to do is to maintain high economic growth. But even more important than that is the distribution of the growth. So far, we have had high economic growth, but the benefits go to the high-income groups and very little go to the lower-income groups,” Pernia said.

“That is why inequality and poverty have been persisting. So our policy would be to make sure that economic growth is more pro-poor, more biased toward the lower-income groups,” he said.

Still on antipoverty efforts, Taguiwalo said she would look at the impact of the Aquino administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) on the poor.

She said she planned to upgrade the system to encourage grassroots livelihood organisations to flourish “so that eventually the poor would be able to take care of themselves.”

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AFP, Reuters

A mother who was caught stealing a fried chicken drumstick and a storybook as a gift for her sick daughter on International Children’s Day has ended up warming the hearts of the public.

The woman, surnamed Liu, was stopped by supermarket staff in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, on Tuesday evening, the day before.

But after she told her story to police, they decided to raise money for the mother and her twin daughters.

“It was the first time that I’d ever given money to a thief,” police officer Pan Shunqin said in a post on WeChat after taking the woman to the police station.

Liu, 36, gave birth to the girls in 2009. Both were diagnosed with a kidney disorder when they were 18 months old. The girls’ father left because of the economic burden.

She earns 30 to 40 yuan (S$6.30 to S$8.30) per day working at a garbage sorting station, but she must spend around 3,000 yuan for the girls’ medical bills each month and is heavily in debt.

In late May, Liu took one of the girls to a Nanjing hospital. To save money, they stayed in a tiny room that cost 30 yuan per day, instead of in the hospital.

The sick girl said that her Children’s Day wish was a chicken drumstick, but the mom had used up most of the money she had borrowed from relatives. She only had 5 yuan in her pocket, and a chicken drumstick cost 7 yuan at the supermarket.

She hid the stolen drumstick in her clothes, along with more food and a storybook that her daughter had dreamed of for months.

Pan said the amount of money involved in the case－about 90 yuan－was far too low to consider it a crime, so she was released that night.

However, he was bombarded with donations after he posted the message on WeChat. He has received around 50,000 yuan from colleagues and friends, as well as more than 300,000 yuan from strangers.

“We’ll decide whether we’ll restart the online donation channel for the twins after the doctors’ professional assessment of their physical condition. The money that has been raised is enough for now,” Sina Jiangsu, a public account on Sina Weibo and the initiator of the microblog fundraising campaign, posted on Wednesday night.