Skip to main content

Rodrigo Duterte (2016-present) 16th President

Rodrigo "Rody" Roa Duterte, also known as Digong, is a Filipino politician and jurist who is the 16th and current President of the Philippines, and Chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for 2017.



He is the first Mindanaoan to hold the office, and the fourth of Visayan descent. At 71 years old, Duterte is the oldest person to assume the Philippine presidency, superseding Sergio Osmeña and Fidel Ramos, respectively.

Duterte's maternal grandfather was a Chinese immigrant from Xiamen, Fujian. His father was Vicente G. Duterte (1911–1968), a Cebuano lawyer; and his mother Soledad Duterte (1916–2012), was a school teacher from Cabadbaran, Agusan and a civic leader of Maranao descent. Duterte's father was acting mayor of Danao, Cebu and subsequently the provincial governor of (the then-undivided) Davao province.

Duterte has siblings named Eleanor Duterte; Benjamin "Bong" Duterte, a one-term city councilor of Davao between 1992 and 1995; younger sister Jocelyn Duterte, who lost in several attempts to grab a Third District city council seat as well as for the mayor post in 2001; and Don "Blue Boy" Duterte who ran and lost in the First District congressional race in 1998.


Duterte was once married to Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, a flight attendant who hails from Davao City and has a German American descent who also traces her roots in Tuburan, Cebu. They together have three children: Paolo ("Pulong"), Sara ("Inday Sara") and Sebastian ("Baste").



Duterte went to Laboon Elementary School in Maasin, for a year. He spent his remaining elementary days at the Santa Ana Elementary School in Davao City, where he graduated in 1956. He finished his secondary education in the High School Department of the then Holy Cross College of Digos in today's city of Digos in the now defunct Davao province, after being expelled twice from previous schools, including one in Ateneo de Davao University High School due to misconduct. Duterte studied political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, graduating in 1968, before obtaining a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972. He then worked as a lawyer and was a prosecutor for Davao City, a highly urbanized city on Mindanao island, before becoming vice mayor and, subsequently, mayor of the city in the wake of the Philippine Revolution of 1986. Duterte was among the longest-serving mayors in the Philippines, serving seven terms totaling more than 22 years in office.



Duterte, who has been dubbed "The Punisher" by Time magazine, has been linked by human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch to extrajudicial killings of over 1,400 alleged criminals and street children by vigilante death squads. He denied responsibility for the extrajudicial killings.



On May 30, 2016, the 16th Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Duterte as the President-elect of the Philippines after he topped the official count by the Congress of the Philippines for the 2016 presidential election with 16,601,997 votes, 6.6 million more than his closest rival, Mar Roxas. 

Shortly after his inauguration on June 30, Duterte held his first Cabinet meeting to lay out their first agenda, which included the country's disaster risk reduction management, decongesting the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, the country's main gateway, and expressed his ideas and concerns regarding the territorial disputes in the South China Sea prior to the announcement of the verdict of the Philippines' arbitration case against China over the issue, which the Philippines later won.

In December 2016, Duterte was ranked 70th on Forbes list of The World's Most Powerful People.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ramon Magsaysay (1953-1957) 7th President

Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay Sr. was the seventh President of the Republic of the Philippines.He serves as President from December 30, 1953 until his death in an aircraft disaster. Ramon del Fierro Magsaysay was born in Iba, Zambales on August 31, 1907 to Exequiel Magsaysay y de los Santos (April 18, 1874 in San Marcelino, Zambales – January 24, 1968 in Manila), a blacksmith, and Perfecta del Fierro y Quimson (April 18, 1887 in Castillejos, Zambales – May 5, 1980 in Manila), a school teacher. He spent his grade school life somewhere in Castillejos and his high school life at Zambales Academy in San Narciso, Zambales. After high school, Magsaysay entered the University of the Philippines in 1927, where he enrolled in a pre-medical course. He worked as a chauffeur to support himself as he studied engineering; and later, he transferred to the Institute of Commerce at Jose Rizal College (1928-1932), where he received a baccalaureate in commerce. He then worked as an automobile mecha...

Joseph Estrada (1998-2001) 13th President

Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada is a Filipino politician who served as the 13th President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001 and as the 9th Vice President of the Philippines from 1992 to 1998. Former Senator and President Estrada was born on April 19, 1937 in Tondo, Manila to Emilio Ejercito and Maria Marcelo. He studied at the Ateneo de Manila University and at the Mapua Institute of Technology. He holds Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pangasinan. He became a movie actor in his early twenties and established himself as a living legend in local filmdom. He is married to Luisa Pimentel Estrada. His children are Jinggoy, Jacqueline and Jude (with Luisa), Teresitaand Joel Eduardo (with Peachy Osorio), Joseph Victor (with Guia Gomez), and Jerica Ejercito (with Laarni Enriquez). He first entered politics in 1967 when he was elected Mayor of the Municipality of San Juan and served up to 1986. He was recognized as Outstanding Mayor and Foremost Natio...

Corazon Aquino (1986-1992) 11th President

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Aquino, popularly known as Cory Aquino, was a Filipina politician who was the 11th President of the Philippines, the first woman to hold that office and the first female president in Asia. Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco was born January 25, 1933, in the Tarlac Province to a wealthy political and banking family. She attended school in Manila until the age of 13, then finished her education in the United States, first in Philadelphia and later in New York City. She graduated from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York in 1953, with a bachelor's degree in both French and mathematics. Upon returning to the Philippines, she enrolled in law school in Manila, where she met Benigno Aquino, Jr., an ambitious young journalist who also came from a family with considerable wealth. The couple married in 1954, and would go on to have five children together: Maria Elena ("Ballsy"; born 1954), Aurora Corazon ("Pinky"; bor...