Sara Duterte, the daughter of the outgoing populist president of the Philippines, took her oath Sunday as vice-president following a landslide electoral victory she clinched despite her father's human rights record that saw thousands of drug suspects gunned down.
The inauguration in their southern hometown of Davao, where she's the outgoing mayor, comes two weeks before she assumes office on June 30 as specified in the Philippine Constitution. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Duterte's running mate, will take his oath in Manila on June 30.
"I'm not the best or the most intelligent person in the Philippines and the world but nobody can beat the toughness of my heart as a Filipino," Duterte, who wore a green traditional gown, said in a speech after she took her oath before a Supreme Court associate justice, her hand resting on a Bible held by her mother.
"The voice of 32.2 million Filipinos was loud and clear -- with the message to serve our motherland," Duterte said, referring to the votes she got, to an applause from thousands of supporters.
Fondly called by supporters as "Inday Sara," the mother of three called for national unity and devotion to God and asked Filipinos to emulate the patriotism of the country's national hero Jose Rizal. She cited longstanding social ills facing Filipino children, including poverty, broken families, illegal drugs, bullying and online misinformation and asked parents to ingrain in them the values of integrity, discipline, respect for others and compassion.
President Rodrigo Duterte, 77, led the VIPs in the heavily guarded ceremony at a public square near city hall in the port city of Davao, where he had also served as a longtime mayor starting in the late 1980s. His family, hailing from modest middle-class background, built a formidable political dynasty in the restive southern region long troubled by communist and Muslim insurgencies and violent political rivalries.
Duterte's presidency has been marked by a brutal anti-drugs campaign that has left thousands of mostly petty suspects shot dead by police or vigilantes. The drug killings are being investigated by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity.
The electoral triumph of Sara Duterte and Marcos Jr. has alarmed left-wing and human rights groups because of their failure to acknowledge the massive human rights atrocities that took place under their fathers, including late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte campaigned on a vague platform of national unity, without clearly addressing activists' calls for them to take steps to prosecute the elder Duterte when he retires from politics.
One of the president's son, Sebastian Duterte, will succeed his sister as Davao mayor, and another son, Paolo Duterte, won a seat in the House of Representatives in the May 9 elections. The outgoing president's late father was a former Davao governor.
Philippine elections have long been dominated by politicians belonging to the same bloodlines. At least 250 political families have monopolized power across the country, although such dynasties are prohibited under the constitution. Congress -- long controlled by members of powerful clans targeted by the constitutional ban -- has failed to pass the law needed to define and enforce the provision.
While Sara Duterte, 44, refused calls by her father and supporters to seek the presidency, she has not ruled out a future run. She topped pre-elections surveys for the president last year and won with a huge margin like Marcos Jr.
Aside from the vice-president, she has agreed to serve as education secretary, although there were talks that her initial preference was to head the Department of National Defence, a traditional springboard to the presidency.
Still, the education portfolio would provide her first national political platform, especially with plans to resume physical classes soon after the country was hit hard by two years of coronavirus pandemic outbreaks and lockdowns.
She thanked her Davao supporters on Saturday and said she decided to hold her inauguration in one of the country's most developed cities to show her pride as a southern provincial politician who rose to a top national post.
Duterte finished a medical course and originally wanted to become a doctor but later took up law and was prevailed upon to enter politics starting in 2007, when she was elected as Davao vice-mayor and mayor three years later.
In 2011, she drew national attention when she was caught on video punching and assaulting a court sheriff who was helping lead a police demolition of a shanty community despite her plea for a brief deferment. The court official sustained a black eye and face injuries and was taken by her bodyguards to a hospital.
Despite her public feuds with her father, Sara Duterte had her hair shaved a year before the 2016 elections as a show of support for his candidacy.
He won the single six-year mandate by a huge margin on an audacious but failed promise to eradicate illegal drugs and corruption in three to six months, and constant public threats to kill drug dealers.
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A government-funded report released to Â鶹´«Ã½ highlights 'systemic racism' against dozens of Black executives within the federal public service, including allegations of abuse, violence and harassment that, in some instances, led to suicide.
The federal government is urging both sides in the British Columbia port dispute to return to the table after mediated talks broke off on Saturday, the first of three scheduled days.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris on Monday made their first joint appearance since her U.S. selection loss when they observed Veterans Day together by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Israel’s new foreign minister said that there has been 'certain progress' in efforts to end the fighting with Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
A Spirit Airlines plane was hit by gunfire Monday over Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, according to diplomatic source in the country, resulting in what the airline described as “minor injuries†to one of its crew members.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is seeking to move up the start of his trial on corruption and bribery charges so he can focus on his campaign for reelection this spring.
A man accused of killing a person and staging it as a fatal bear attack in Tennessee was taken into custody in South Carolina over the weekend on murder charges, in what authorities described as a plot to steal the victim’s identity.
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Crowds gathered in Ottawa and eastern Ontario on Monday to honour the sacrifice of men and women in uniform who gave their lives in service of Canada.
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Edmonton's Beverly Memorial Cenotaph on Monday hosted its 104th Remembrance Day service to honour past and present veterans.
Across Canada, dignitaries marked Remembrance Day by laying wreaths at ceremonies, school children sang in the late fall chill and veterans recalled the horrors of battle.
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Across Canada, dignitaries marked Remembrance Day by laying wreaths at ceremonies, school children sang in the late fall chill and veterans recalled the horrors of battle.
If Earth's astronomical observatories were to pick up a signal from outer space, it would need an all-hands-on-deck effort to decipher the extraterrestrial message. A father-daughter team of citizen scientists recently deciphered the message. Its meaning, however, remains a mystery.
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A team of tornado experts are investigating a path of damage through Wellington County.
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Windsor Paralympic champion, Danielle Campo, has been crowned the number one Inspirational Speaker of the Year for 2024 at the Inspirational Speaking Finals.
A B.C. woman who stole more than $14,000 in volunteer-raised funds that were supposed to be spent on school supplies and programs – including hot meals for vulnerable kids – won't spend any time in jail.
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The Southern Alberta Recreation Association is officially announcing the Town of Taber as next year’s host for the Southern Alberta Summer Games.
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Police say that a 16-year-old was attacked with a sword Nov. 3 in Cobalt, Ont., in a case of intimate partner violence.
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On Thursday morning, Dave Penny officially ended a suggested hundred-day isolation period that followed his diagnosis and stem cell treatment for non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. On Thursday night, Penny returned to a stage at a downtown St. John's bar, regaling a small crowd with songs and stories with a distinctive Newfoundland flair.
A Memorial University scientist says the mysterious white blobs washing up on Newfoundland beaches are actually gobs of plastic -- and they need to be cleaned up.
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