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| President Rodrigo Duterte (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Wang Wen, Dario Agnote
MANILA, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Philippine new president Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday vowed to tackle the country's problems and rebuild public confidence in the government in his inauguration speech. Experts here believe he faces enormous challenges to achieve his goals.
Duterte won the Philippine presidential election held on May 9 with 16,601,997 votes, a lead of almost 7 million over the second-placer Manuel Roxas.
For many, especially the grassroots, Duterte himself embodies hope of change.
In his inauguration speech, the former Davao City mayor vowed to crack down on illegal drugs, high criminality and corruption, seek peaceful agreements with leftist and Moro rebels, and lift the poor out of poverty.
The 71-year-old politician believed that the "erosion of faith and trust in government" is the most serious problem facing his administration.
"I see the erosion of the people's trust in our 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," he said.
As for government's peaceful agreement with leftist and Moro rebels, Duterte said in his speech that his administration is "committed to implement all signed peace agreements in step with constitutional and legal reforms."
The Duterte administration and the country's leftist movement had already held preliminary talks in the middle of June to set the tone for the resumption of the stalled formal peace process.
Negotiators for the Philippine government and leftist National Democratic Front said the two sides agreed on the agenda of their formal talks in the third week of July in Oslo.
Read the full story at Xinhua