In less than a minute, democracy’s most elegant rite and finest moment—the peaceful transfer of power from one duly elected leader to another duly elected leader—took place at Malacañang, the riverside presidential palace, at noon of Thursday, June 30, 2016.
And in just 14 minutes and 45 seconds, the new leader, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, 71, the 16th president of the Republic of the Philippines, spelled out his fighting faith, his mission, and his plan of action in the next six years. Charming his audience, he was applauded 26 times—almost two bursts of applause every minute.
Digong Duterte’s speech is the most simple, the best, and the most stirring of all presidential inaugural speeches I have heard as a journalist of 46 years.
He delivered his speech with calibrated cadence, with passion and earnestness, with an intense gaze and often with agitation. He committed only two mispronunciations. When he addressed the Speaker as “Finance” instead of “Feliciano” (maybe the result of Congress being associated with pork barrel), and when he tried to pronounce “catapulted” as “catapulated,” after speaking in his native Visayan (Cebuano).
He departed from his prepared speech twice, first when he addressed former President Ramos and told him in Pilipino, “salamat po sa tulong mo” (thank you sir, for your help), making me president”; second, at the end, to stress why he is addressing the people. “I am here. Why? Because I am ready to start my work for the nation.” The audience warmly applauded.
Duterte hit all the right chords and stirred the minds and heart of every Filipino listening to him.
He vowed to restore the people’s confidence “in the capacity of our public servants to make the people’s lives better, safer, and healthier” to the audience’s thunderous applause. He pledged to recover and revitalize the loss and faded values “as we commerce our journey towards a better Philippines.” (Applause). These are: love of country, subordination of personal interests to the common good, concern and care for the helpless and the impoverished.
He reminded every Filipino that “I was elected to the presidency to serve the entire country,” adding “I was not elected to serve the interest of anyone person, or any group, or any one class.” “I serve everyone and not only one,” he declared, as the audience erupted in wild applause.
In that sentence, Duterte made it clear he is not just the president of his family, of his clan, of Davaoweños, of Visayans, of Mindanawans, of the rich, or of just the poor. He is the president of all Filipinos.
As if to underscore unity and love of country, Duterte had stitched, not just pinned, on the left chest of his elegant Davao-made jusi barong, a replica of the flag of the Republic of the Philippines. His predecessor, BS Aquino III, never pinned any flag on his collar, on his lapel, or on his chest, the Philippine flag. The 15th president wore always his family’s yellow ribbon symbol, making him a cut above the rest.
Duterte listed four problems he must address “with urgency”: “corruption, both in the high and low echelons of government; criminality in the streets, the rampant sale of illegal drugs in all strata of Philippine society, and the breakdown of law and order.” “They have to be stopped by all means that the law allows,” he asserted.
Corruption, the President explained, “bled the government of funds, which were allocated for … uplifting the poor from the mire that they are in.”
Illegal drugs, he said, “destroyed individuals and ruined family relationships.” Criminality “snatched from the innocent the unsuspecting, the years and years of accumulated savings” and suddenly, “they are back to where they started.”
To solve these problems, Duterte asked Congress and the Commission on Human Rights to “mind your work and I will mind mine.”
He assured those who think “my methods are unorthodox and verge on the illegal” that “my adherence to due process and the rule of law is uncompromising.” He reminded them that “as a lawyer and a former prosecutor, I know the limits of the power and authority of the President. I know what is legal and what is not.”
More serious than corruption, illegal drugs, criminality, the breakdown of law order, Duterte pointed out, is “a virulent social disease that creeps and cuts into the moral fiber of Philippine society.” This is the “real problem” of “erosion of faith and trust in government, in the country’s leaders; the erosion of faith in our judicial system; the erosion of confidence in the capacity of our public servants to make the people’s lives better, safer, and healthier.”
Duterte quoted three people to sum up his principles of governance.
First, Roosevelt: “The test of government is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have little.”
Second, Lincoln: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; You cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich; You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer; You cannot further the brotherhood by inciting class hatred among men.”
Third, Anonymous: “I have no friends to serve, I have no enemies to harm.”
Finally, the new President gave an order which he said cannot wait for tomorrow:
“All department secretaries and the heads of agencies to reduce requirements and the processing time of all applications, (Applause) from the submission to the release.(Applause). I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to remove redundant requirements and compliance with one department or agency, shall be accepted as sufficient for all. (Applause).
I order all department secretaries and heads of agencies to refrain from changing and bending the rules government contracts, transactions and projects already approved and awaiting implementation. (Applause). Changing the rules when the game is ongoing is wrong.”
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