Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte arrives to a cheering crowd for his campaign sortie in Tondo, Manila on Tuesday. Duterte kicked off his 90-day campaign addressing Tondo residents, mostly migrants from Visayas and Mindanao, with a promise of decentralizing development in the country.(MNS photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) – Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte said he would be a “working president” who would pay no mind to criticisms against him.
“I have been in politics for 23 years, I’ve learned to accept garbage and divine light from others. Para sa akin, I would just like to be a working president,” Duterte said.
Asked on whether he would like to be loved or feared by people, Duterte, without hesitation, said, “I really do not care who hates me.”
“Yung criticism, good or bad, true or not, is part of the territory of governance,” he said, even joking that in his years in politics, he was seldom portrayed in good light.
“You know very well, that I’ve been in the government in the past 22 years, kailan pa ba ako nagmukhang anghel sa inyo?” Duterte said.
However, Duterte, who ruled Davao City with an iron hand for years, said he would respect the opinions of those who are against him, even within the government.
“I may disagree [with] what you say but I will defend your right to say it. We are in a democracy,” he said.
Meanwhile, he explained his somewhat uncouth manner of presenting himself in the public during the campaign period, saying it was all just strategy.
“It was what the people wanted. Would you believe it, at this point, ‘yun yung gusto nila. Kita mo dinagdagan ko pa, it was not even just a casual pagmumura. It was altogether, virulent as I said,” Duterte said.
“Pero bakit ako nag-margin ng 7 million, kung bastos ako, nagmumura ako kung bad boy ako? Why? Wala naman maka-explain,” he added.(MNS)