Now that he has emerged as the presumptive President-elect, Rodrigo Duterte has made a promise to the Filipino people-curses shall no longer escape his lips.

“I need to control my mouth. I cannot be bastos (rude) because I will be representing our country,” Duterte said.

The erstwhile Davao City mayor’s foul and vulgar language had caused several controversies during the three-month presidential campaign.

He earned the ire of the Catholic Church and its ardent followers after he cursed Pope Francis, blaming him for the traffic gridlock during his visit in January 2015.

Addressing the Makati Business Club, he joked about using Viagra and accused the men in the room of having mistresses.

But the biggest controversy erupted after he rued at a campaign rally not being first in line, as befitting the mayor, to rape a pretty Australian missionary who was later killed by the prisoners who had taken her hostage in 1989.

“If you are the President of the country, you need to be prim and proper, almost maging holy na ako (I should be holy),” Duterte said.

Instead of his usual swear words, he would now cry out, anak ng jueteng (child of the illegal numbers game), or tang just like “that brand of fruit juice.”

“Tang” is also one syllable in the tough-talking mayor’s favourite curse involving a child’s mother.

Duterte, however, would not give up on his attacks against the media over “negative news,” even calling journalists “paid hacks.”

But he assured the people that press freedom in his administration would even be expanded and all government agencies, including local government units, would be ordered to “open up.”

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP, Reuters

‘Media bias’

“These guys printed the story on the front page without bothering to verify. Some of the properties listed under the name of Duterte and I really do not know why I have an account… of almost… ang lupa ko umabot pa ng (my land reached all the way to) Dipolog,” Duterte said.

“For how much?” he quipped, implying that some journalists may have been paid to write against him.

Duterte assailed the newspapers and television networks, saying they produced “garbage” when they published and aired the claim of Sen. Antonio Trillanes that he had hundreds of millions of pesos in several bank accounts.

“That was the garbage that some networks and broad sheets adopted,” he said.

He said he remained quiet about the media’s negative stories about him during the campaign period.

But last night he said, “I am tempted to give you the dirty finger.”

He had harsher words for his critics: Babalik din sa inyo yan (it will come back to you), and mamamatay na lang silang isa-isa (they will all die one by one).

He reiterated that press freedom would not be under threat in a Duterte administration, and that he would sign the freedom of information bill and order all government agencies to be open with the public.

Mr Rodrigo Duterte, the presumptive winner of the Philippines presidential election on Monday (May 9), is known for saying things that would anger some people and make others blush.

But his no-holds-barred style has endeared him to many voters, who no doubt are also won over by his record in turning the Philippines’ third largest city of Davao from a crime-ridden backwater to one of the country’s fastest growing regions.

Here’s a round-up of his most infamous quotes on the campaign trail.

On crime

– “Forget the laws on human rights. 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 I’d kill you,” he said at his final campaign rally in Manila on Saturday, referring to his record after 22 years as mayor of Davao.

– “I’ll dump all of you (criminals) into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.”

On women

– “They raped all of the women… There was this Australian lay minister… when they took them out… I saw her face and I thought, ‘Son of a b****. what a pity… they raped her, they all lined up. I was mad she was raped but she was so beautiful. I thought, the mayor should have been first.” — Speaking at a campaign rally about a prison riot in Davao in 1989 that saw inmates take a female Australian missionary working at the prison hostage before raping and killing her.

– “I was separated from my wife. I’m not impotent. What am I supposed to do? Let this hang forever? When I take Viagra, it stands up.”

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

AFP, Reuters

On diplomacy

– “If I become president, go ahead and sever (diplomatic ties).” — Mr Duterte referring to the relationships with the US and Australia, two of the Philippines’ closest allies, in the aftermath of his “joke” on the Australian female missionary.

On the Pope

– “We were affected by the traffic. It took us five hours. I asked why, they said it was closed. I asked who is coming. They answered, the pope. I wanted to call him: ‘Pope, son of a whore, go home. Do not visit us again’.” — Mr Duterte recalling how Manila’s already congested traffic became worse during the pontiff’s visit in January 2015.

On territorial disputes in South China Sea

– “I will ride a jet ski (to the Spratlys) while bringing the Philippine flag.”

– “I would say to China, ‘do not claim anything here and I will not insist also that it is ours’. But then I will just keep a blind eye.”

On Donald Trump

– “He’s a bigot and I am not.” — Mr Duterte rejecting comparisons of him with the presumptive Republican nominee in the US presidential election, Mr Donald Trump.

And finally, on his own cussing

– “For every profanity, there’s a story behind it. People should go beyond my cussing.”

Source: BBC, Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network, AFP

This article was first published on May 10, 2016.
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