Duterte vows to deal decisively with crime, rice cartels

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte
(Photo from the official Facebook page of Duterte)

If elected to the presidency in the coming May 9 elections, PDP-Laban standard bearer Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Sunday to eliminate crime and rice cartels within the first few months of his six-year term.

He made the statement during the second round of the first Pilipinas Debates, which was held at the Capitol University in Cagayan de Oro Sunday afternoon.

Should he fail in these particular tasks, Duterte also pledged to relinquish his post as president.

But Duterte feels confided in stopping the rice cartels as he vowed to order the arrest of all rice cartel personalities within the first three months of his presidency.

In the same vein, the PDP-Laban bet also promised to put a decisive end to all criminal syndicates within the first three to six months upon assumption as the country’s Chief Executive.

Duterte also reiterated that it will be bloody to clean the country if he wins as the president in the coming elections.

“Criminals, well, I will go after them.

As long as I do it in accordance with the rules of law, I will continue to kill criminals,” Duterte said in Filipino.

“Any president can order the killing as long as it is in performance of his duty in accordance with law,” he added.

Aside from this, Duterte also plans to build food terminals and allocate a Php1-billion budget per region to address poverty and development should he win the presidency.

“We would like to build food terminals and would have the Land Bank of the Philippines to fund farmers and have the Department of Trade to cooperate. The target is Php1 billion per region to enable the farmers to build and fund their cooperatives,” he added