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| Philippines Election As of 1.26 am |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
‘The Punisher’ Rodrigo Duterte on course for victory in Philippine presidential vote
Rodrigo Duterte, a brash crime-fighting mayor nicknamed “the Punisher”, has taken a commanding lead as provisional results poured in for presidential elections in the Philippines.
The firebrand figure, who has vowed to order mass killings of criminals and feed their bodies to the fish of Manila Bay, appeared on course to win the presidency with a crushing victory.
The overwhelming vote signalled an anti-establishment backlash in a country plagued by enduring challenges of crime, corruption and poverty.
The 71-year-old mayor of the southern provincial hub of Davao City surged ahead of his traditional Manila-based rivals in the polls on the back of his populist and profane campaign.
With 80 per cent of polling station results tallied, Mr Duterte had secured nearly 13.5 million votes, a commanding lead over his closest competitor, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas, on 7.75 million.
The turn-out was estimated at 81 per cent, breaking all previous records, as the mayor's brash style galvinised supporters during one of most acrimonious and contentious campaigns in the country’s history.
The final results are expected to be confirmed on Tuesday. But Grace Poe, a film star’s daughter and first-term senator who had earlier led the polls, conceded defeat in a midnight press conference. "I respect the will of the people," she said.
Mr Duterte’s incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to combat crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the Southeast Asian country's authoritarian past.
Indeed, Benigno Aquino, the outgoing president, had made a last-ditch appeal to his countrymen not to back a politician whom he compared to Adolf Hitler.
That desperate call evidently fell on deaf ears. And in another possible rebuff for Mr Aquino, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the late dictator, held a close lead in the battle for vice-president, a position that is elected separately from the top job.
A victory would signal a remarkable comeback for the Marcos family 30 years after the "People Power" uprising ended their rule. Mr Aquino’s mother Corazon, a future president, led those protests three years after her husband, a prominent Marcos foe, was assassinated.
As results came in, Mr Duterte told CNN Philippines: "It's a matter of destiny crafted by the people and God. Thank you to all those who voted for me. And to my opponents, I would like to extend my hand of friendship."
But he also aggressively addressed the South China Sea crisis and lamented the "loss" to Beijing of disputed islands off the Philippines coast. His comments indicated that he will adopt a more strident approach to one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints.
In Davao, human rights groups have accused him of turning a blind eye to vigilante death squads. And the mayor rounded off his campaign in typically combative and foul-mouthed style.
He offered personally to “butcher” a criminal in front of his critics and denounced Mr Aquino as a “son of a whore”.
The president's plea for anti-Duterte unity failed as badly as attempts by Republican grandees to find a unity candidate in the recent primary campaign to block Donald Trump – a figure to whom the mayor is often compared.
Mr Duterte’s rallies and speeches were fuelled with foul language and included jokes about the rape of a murdered Australian missionary as well as discussing his Viagra-fuelled sex life.
Attention will now focus on his choices for key posts as the maverick mayor with no foreign policy experience inherits the global flashpoint of the South China Sea showdown and a hostage crisis with Islamic kidnap gang Abu Sayyaf.
His prospective election is viewed with alarm by investors, the political elite and diplomats. The Philippines has enjoyed one of the region’s strongest economic growth rates under Mr Aquino but the benefits have by-passed much of the country.
Last night he struck a conciliatory note. "I would like to reach, extend my hands to my opponents and let us be friends," he said. "Let us begin the process of healing."
Mr Duterte has in the past struck deals with communist rebels and offered to bring their leaders into government. He has also threatened to send Congress and form a “revolutionary government” if politicians try to block his policies.
He has progressive social views but it is his relentless anti-crime message and promise to share the benefits of economic growth with the provinces that has resonated most strongly.
The mayor is widely credited with restoring security to the once-lawless streets of Davao City, a sprawling metropolis long viewed as the country’s murder capital.
“We want Duterte to do for the rest of the country what he has done for Davao,” said Clara Mimenez, 26, a waitress, as she went to vote in Manila. “He talks rough and tough, but that’s fine with me as long as he gets the job done.
“We’ve have enough of crime, drugs and corruption. And we’ve have enough of the same old political elite doing nothing for us. It’s time to shake this country up – to shake it up big time.”
