EXPOSE. President Rodrigo Duterte says he will make an 'expose' against the Philippine Daily Inquirer at the 50th founding anniversary of Davao del Norte in Tagum City on July 1, 2017. Photo by Joey Dalumpines/Presidential Photo

MANILA, Philippines – As President Rodrigo Duterte embarked on his second year in office, he launched fresh attacks against a major newspaper, accusing its owners of not paying proper taxes for a property whose ownership is still the subject of a court battle.

In a speech during the Davao del Norte’s 50th founding anniversary on Saturday, July 1, the Chief Executive warned that he would "make an exposé" against the Philippine Daily Inquirer whose owners he accused of incorrect tax payment.

"One of these days, I will come up with an exposé," he said.

The President claimed that the "Inquirer" owed P8 billion in taxes, though he was apparently referring to the newspaper's owners, the Prietos, who owned the property in question.

“They occupy Mile Long ang contract ana, 50 years, extension kausa. Why extension? Ang kita ng mga tindahan diha, sila’y ga kolekta (The contract is only for 50 years but it was extended. Why extension? They collect revenues from the stores there),” Duterte said.

“Ila pa ang taxes. Kanang mga tag-iya ng Inquirer kaya…pero kung magsalita kayo kontra sa akin, akala 'nyo sino ang malinis. Kayo ang mga tulisan (The taxes are theirs. The owners of Inquirer. But when you speak against me, it’s like you’re the ones who are clean. You are the thief),” he added.

It was the latest in a series of attacks of Duterte against media companies he believed to be critical of his administration. (READ: Duterte tries to link Inquirer owners to ex-official with huge salary)

The President said he would make sure that the disputed property is "returned" to the government.

"But I will not allow you to do that to the Filipino people. You return the property to the Republic of the Philippines,” he said.

He reiterated that he would ask the people to “occupy” the Mile Long property because “it belongs to you.” The President had made the same threat in March.

Duterte was referring to a property in Makati City that is the subject of a court case between the Sunvar Realty Development Corporation a developer owned by the Rufino and Prieto families, and the city of Makati.

In September 2016, the Court of Appeals (CA) rejected the city government’s move to take possession of the property. This was in response to a 2015 decision by a Metropolitan Trial Court (MTC) in Makati which ordered Sunvar to vacate the 2.9 hectare property, according to a report from the BusinessMirror.

The MCT then ordered Sunvar to pay the government back rentals reaching P478.2 million then. They were also told to pay a P3.2 million monthly rent beginning June 2015.

“Kaya itong korte, kayo ring mga judges bantay kayo. Hindi, ganito eh. Pag naa gani bidding, misking si Consunji and Ayala….'pag naa’y bidding, mag-apply restraining order….Lahat ng protesta, there never was a finding that it was overpriced,” said Duterte, referring to the flurry of legal remedies that follow bidding wars.

(So those courts, those judges better watch out. No, it’s like this. When there’s bidding, even if it’s a Consunji and an Ayala…when there’s a bidding, someone applies for a restraining order. In all those protests, there never was a finding that it was overpriced.)

Aside from the Inquirer, the President also singled out major TV network ABS-CBN, which he had also accused of airing unflattering reports about his presidency.

In May, the President threatened ABS-CBN with multiple estafa charges for not airing his campaign advertisements which he had already paid for. – Rappler.com</s>A well-heeled crowd flocked to Manila's Malacañang Palace the day Rodrigo Duterte gave his inaugural presidential speech . There were former premiers in military garb, bishops in cassocks and collars, and diplomats in barong shirts. But the squat man at the lectern had his collar open, and he rolled his r's languidly as he addressed the dignitaries before him. Duterte talked, as he so often had on the campaign trail, of corruption, "rampant" drug abuse, and the deterioration of law of order: all of them "symptoms of a virulent disease ... the erosion of faith and trust in government."

That day, in the parlance of inaugural speeches everywhere — and at odds with later threats to "slaughter" three million drug users — Duterte kicked off a “crusade for a better and brighter tomorrow” in the Philippines. The following day police shot dead four people for drug-related crimes in the street. And the day after that, 14 more people were killed.

So began a presidency that would upend national norms, tilt regional politics, and thrust the Philippines into the international spotlight. More than 7,000 people, mostly poor slum-dwellers, have been killed in Duterte's brutal war on drugs. Relations with Russia and China have warmed as old allegiances with Europe and the U.S. turned frosty. And a still ongoing city siege led by ISIS-linked militants has seen martial law — a phrase never far from Duterte's lips — declared across the country's south.

A year after taking office, the populist president remains as popular as ever. Or almost. In a March Pulse Asia Poll Duterte scored a 78% approval rating — high, although Philippine presidents almost always have high approval ratings at the beginning of their terms.

Read more: Local photographers on the frontline of Duterte’s drug war reflect on the images that moved them most

Like that of U.S. President Donald Trump, the rise of the Philippine strongman did not happen in a vacuum. Duterte's predecessor Benigno Aquino III was widely regarded as uncorrupt, kept the economy growing at an average of 6% per year, and created about 4 million new jobs. But he did not deliver the structural changes required to address abject poverty in the Philippines. Even as the middle classes ballooned in nearby Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, the poorest Filipinos saw scant change since wresting democracy from the kleptocrat Ferdinand Marcos 30 years ago. Unemployment remains high and about one quarter of the population lives below the poverty line.

Enter Rodrigo Duterte: a tough talking mayor who would patrol his southern city of Davao on a motorcycle at dusk. Over some 20 uncontested years in charge, Davao's padrino claimed to have transformed the place into a bastion of order and prosperity in the troubled south. That transformation, it turns out, is overstated: from 2010 to 2015 the city had the highest murder-rate in the Philippines . Still, here was a man who cut through the political quagmire and got things done.

But one year into his presidency — despite the on-paper merit of his 10-point economic plan – Professor Mark Thompson, director of the Southeast Asia Research Centre at City University of Hong Kong tells TIME that Duterte has delivered almost nothing to improve the lot of impoverished Filipinos. "He had that political capital, he had that popularity, and he used it for the drug war, not for programs to help the poor," Thompson says. Philippine polling agency Social Weather Stations found that half of Filipinos considered themselves mahirap , or poor, an increase of 6% in the first quarter of 2017. That number had declined consecutively over the previous nine quarters.

Read more: Democracy Demands Dissent': Philippine Vice President Condemns Duterte's Drug War in Q&A With TIME

Working with a fraction of the budget of their Liberal Party rivals, Duterte's backers ran a masterful campaign to win the Philippines' first "social media elections."

But what surprised Maria Ressa, founder of the Philippine news site Rappler, was that rather than dismantling their social media apparatus after the elections, Duterte's team cranked it up. Ressa tells TIME that state sponsored disinformation campaigns have since been used to smear critics and political opponents, especially female politicians and journalists. “The end goal is to silence dissent; to manufacture consensus,” she says. Duterte's fiercest critic Sen. Leila de Lima has been imprisoned for four months on dubious charges following an #ArrestDeLima hashtag campaign; Ressa says she was the target of a similar hashtag, and at the height of the smear was receiving more than 2,000 hate messages per day.

Last month, Duterte fired the head of the Dangerous Drug Board for contradicting him. Dr. Benjamin Reyes had used the figure of 1.8 million drug addicts in the Philippines based on a 2015 household survey, rather than parroting the President's claim that there are 3 or 4 million.

And there have been numerous incidents of Duterte's cabinet members and official communication channels sharing false news articles. A large contingent of Filipinos derive their news mainly from Facebook and false stories circulate with alarming speed : just 26 fake Facebook accounts can reach 3 million other pages, according to research by Rappler.

But even big-data chicanery cannot insulate Duterte from the latest blow to his image as the Philippines' protector. Zeroing in on drugs, the first president from Mindanao managed to overlook the terrorist threat in his own backyard.

In December, Duterte said of an ISIS-linked militant group: "They threatened to go down from the mountains and burn down Marawi. Go ahead, be my guest. We will wait for you there." This May, the militants did just that. More than a month later, an ad-hoc coalition of militants continues to hold sections of the city. Hundreds, possibly thousands of people have been killed and over 220,000 have been forced to flee their homes.

Read more: ISIS in the Philippines: The Battle for Marawi City

Duterte's absence for almost two weeks at the height of the Marawi crisis has reignited rumors that he's seriously ill. But Richard Heydarian, a political analyst and author of forthcoming book Duterte's Rise, tells TIME that reaction from markets and other political actors has so far been pretty muted. "The guy has been ruling with such sound and fury, he’s like a regular fixture in our everyday life" Heydarian tells TIME "It’s psychologically difficult for people, including critics, to imagine a country without him."</s>Vice President Leni Robredo acknowledges she too has had limitations during the first year, given her office's meager budget.

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo refused to grade President Rodrigo Duterte's first year in office, but said that his administration, like her office, had its shares of achievements and shortcomings.

"Palagay ko unfair naman kay Pangulo kung ako iyong magge-grade sa kanya. Basta iyong sa akin, maraming magagandang ginawa, marami ding pagkukulang," Robredo said in a chance interview on Friday, June 30.

June 30 marks the first year since Duterte and Robredo took their oaths of office in separate events – a first in recent Philippine history.

Asked about the government's shortcomings, Robredo simply said that current efforts would not suffice because of the range of the problems the country is facing.

The Vice President, who has been subject to attacks by pro-Duterte and pro-Marcos groups since the current administration started, said her office will continue to extending help to other national agencies.

Robredo cited her anti-poverty program, Angat Buhay, as a complement to the resources and services of the line agencies.

The relationship between Duterte and Robredo has hit the rough road during their first year in office. The President earlier hesitated to give her a position in the Cabinet so as not to hurt the feelings of his friend, former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whom Robredo defeated in the elections.

Months later, the President finally gave Robredo the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chairmanship, but then asked her to stop attending Cabinet meetings 5 months after. Robredo resigned. Duterte has accused her of plotting against him with her party mates from the Liberal Party – something that Robredo denies.

The two highest officials also faced impeachment threats in their first 12 months in office.

Asked to assess her performance, Robredo acknowledged she too had limitations during the first year, given her office's meager budget.

While her office has reached out to poor communities across the country, there are still many areas that have not been tapped.

"Dahil wala namang pondo iyong opisina namin para sa pagpapagawa ng proyekto, bawat baba namin may partners kaming kasama," she said.

"Sa susunod na taon ganoon pa rin iyong gagawin, lalo sigurong papaigtingin, mas lalong sisipagan sa paghanap ng partners," she added. (Next year, we will scale up our efforts to look for partners.)

Robredo's Angat Buhay program works by linking up private companies with local government units in need of assistance. Currently, the program workswith 127 local government units and over 300 partners. This translates to 36,046 individuals and 22,275 families, with almost P52.72 million worth of resources.

Accomplishments of Angat Buhay Program by Patty Pasion on Scribd</s>Manila: Rodrigo Duterte ends his first year as Philippine president on Friday as a hugely popular leader, after taking Filipinos on a promised "rough ride" of drug war killings and foreign policy U-turns.

Duterte has been heavily criticised for his unprecedented crackdown on drugs, which has claimed thousands of lives, and he marks 12 months in office enduring the biggest crisis of his rule as Islamist militants occupy parts of a southern city.

The 72 year-old has also upended decades of foreign policy stability, launching verbal bombs against traditional ally the United States while steering the Philippines closer to authoritarian regimes in China and Russia.

Yet an overwhelming majority of Filipinos support him, according to a series of surveys by pollsters over the past 12 months, with the most recent one showing 75 percent were satisfied with his administration`s performance.

"People like the man," Ricardo Abad, head of sociology and anthropology at Ateneo University in Manila, told AFP, referring to Duterte`s decisive leadership style.

"People may disagree with his policies, or are maybe ambivalent towards them, but because they like him, people will tend to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Many people overseas know Duterte for his apparent joy in prosecuting his drug war -- he said he was "happy to slaughter" millions of addicts -- as well as gutter language in which critics are frequently called "sons of whores".

But many Filipinos look past the crass talk and see a down-to-earth, anti-establishment figure who empathises with their struggles and is willing to take extreme actions to make dramatic change across all sectors of society.

"He brought an entirely new style of leadership, which people probably thought we needed," Edmund Tayao, a political science professor at the University of Santo Tomas, told AFP.In his inauguration speech, Duterte typically sought not to sugarcoat his plans for the Philippines.

"The ride will be rough. But come join me just the same," Duterte said.

The roughest part of the ride had for most of the past year been his crackdown on drugs.

Police killed 3,116 drug suspects, according to official figures.

Unknown assailants killed another 2,098 people in drug-related crimes, while there were 8,200 more murders with no known motive, according to the police.

Rights groups and other critics warned Duterte may be orchestrating a crime against humanity, alleging he had unleashed corrupt police and vigilante death squads on a campaign of mass murder.

Duterte had made the drug war the top focus of his presidency until May 23, when gunmen rampaged through the southern city of Marawi flying black flags of the Islamic State group.

He immediately imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, home to roughly 20 million people, to quell what he said was an IS bid to establish a local caliphate.

But despite a relentless bombing campaign backed by the United States, Duterte`s military has been unable to dislodge the militants. The fighting has claimed more than 400 lives, according to the government, and it shows no signs of ending.Another example of Duterte`s popularity is his "super majority" in the lower house of congress, where there are just seven opposition members in the 296-member chamber.

Even one of the opposition lawmakers, Edcel Lagman, offered grudging praise this week.

"Despite his unpresidential demeanour, profane language, abusive rhetoric and flawed policy statements, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his own inscrutable way, has held the nation together," he said.

But Lagman said, with Duterte`s promises of "change" yet to become reality, his popularity had started to slide.

If that is happening, Duterte`s "super majority" could fall apart.

In the Philippines, lawmakers from parties across the political spectrum typically flock to a popular president in the early stages of his or her term.

But the politicians, driven by self-interest rather than ideology, have also in the past quickly jumped off the bandwagon when approval ratings dropped.</s>The 72-year-old is still popular with Filipinos despite his leadership being marred by his so-called 'war on drugs'.

It has been one year since Rodrigo Duterte, also known as The Punisher, was elected as Philippines' president, after riding a platform of suppressing crime, the spread of drugs and corruption.

Before coming to power, the former mayor had promised a wide range of reforms, including tackling poverty, unemployment and improving the economy.

Despite taking Filipinos on a promised "rough ride" of drug war killings and foreign policy U-turns, the 72-year-old remains as popular as ever as he marks 12 months in office.

According to pollsters at the Social Weather Stations, 80 percent say they have "much trust" with his administration's performance.

"People like the man," Ricardo Abad, the head of sociology and anthropology at Ateneo University in Manila, told the AFP news agency.

"People may disagree with his policies, or are maybe ambivalent towards them, but because they like him, people will tend to give him the benefit of the doubt."

Al Jazeera's Jamila Alindogan, reporting from Manila, said his first year had also been marred by controversies.

"He has verbally attacked journalists, challenged the Supreme Court and even threatened international rights groups.

"This has led many here to worry that Duterte is running his presidency largely on impulse."

In his inauguration speech, Duterte typically sought not to sugarcoat his plans for the Philippines.

"The ride will be rough. But come join me just the same," Duterte said.

The roughest part of the ride had for most of the past year been his crackdown on drugs.

Duterte has drawn global criticism for the campaign which is believed to have claimed more than 7,000 lives and led to a spike in extrajudicial killings and alleged human rights abuses.

Rights groups and other critics warned Duterte may be orchestrating a crime against humanity, alleging he had unleashed corrupt police and vigilante death squads on a campaign of mass murder.

Duterte had made the drug war the top focus of his presidency until May 23, when fighters linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) rampaged through the southern city of Marawi.

He immediately imposed martial law across the southern third of the Philippines, home to roughly 20 million people, to quell what he said was a bid by ISIL to establish a local caliphate.

But despite a relentless bombing campaign backed by the US, Duterte's military has been unable to dislodge the armed group.

The fighting has claimed more than 400 lives, according to the government, and it shows no signs of ending.

Another example of Duterte's popularity is his "super majority" in the lower house of congress, where there are just seven opposition members in the 296-member chamber.

Even one of the opposition lawmakers, Edcel Lagman, offered grudging praise this week.

"Despite his unpresidential demeanour, profane language, abusive rhetoric and flawed policy statements, President Rodrigo Duterte, in his own inscrutable way, has held the nation together," he said. 

 

 But Lagman said, with Duterte's promises of "change" yet to become reality, his popularity had started to slide.

If that is happening, Duterte's "super majority" could fall apart.

In the Philippines, lawmakers from parties across the political spectrum typically flock to a popular president in the early stages of his or her term.

But the politicians, driven by self-interest rather than ideology, have also in the past quickly jumped off the bandwagon when approval ratings dropped.</s>Manila, Philippines | AFP | With abusive tirades against critics and light-hearted comments about rape, Rodrigo Duterte cemented himself as one of the world’s most outspoken leaders during his first year as Philippine president.

As Duterte marks one year in office on Friday, here are some of his more memorable remarks:

“Hitler massacred three million Jews. Now there are three million drug addicts (in the Philippines). I’d be happy to slaughter them.”

Duterte in full roar over his quest to end illegal drugs in society. His crackdown led to police and unknown assailants killing thousands of alleged drug users and addicts. Rights groups warned he may be overseeing a crime against humanity.

After criticism from Jewish groups, Duterte apologised for referring to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler but said he was “emphatic” about wanting to kill millions of addicts.

“You must be respectful. Do not just throw away questions and statements. You son of a whore, I will curse you at that forum.”

Duterte warns then-US president Barack Obama not to criticise his drug war at a regional summit in Laos that they were about to attend.

“In this shifting of political and cultural thing, America has lost it. I mean, I realigned myself in your (China’s) ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia.”

On a trip to Beijing, Duterte articulates his disdain for the United States — the Philippines’ mutual defence partner — and fondness for China and Russia.</s>Chinese weapons will contribute to the army of the Philippines in its fight against the terrorists, the Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Zhao Jianhua, said at a ceremony.

The automatic weapons were personally tested by the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, during the ceremony. He expressed sincere gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jinping for the gift.

The Chinese ambassador also said that the second batch of military assistance is currently being assigned and will soon be delivered to the Philippines.

According to him, terrorism is the enemy of both China and the Philippines and it requires the armed forces of both the countries to expand cooperation.

The diplomat noted that the Chinese side is ready to contribute in the joint training of military personnel, an exchange of intelligence, and to conduct joint military exercises to combat terrorism.

Furthermore, China will donate 5 million Philippines pesos (about 100,000 USD) to the families of servicemen who died in battles with the terrorists in Marawi and to the wounded soldiers.

According to the official data, during the fighting about 400 people, including 290 fighters and 70 military personnel were killed.

Rodrigo Duterte said that China, being a “good friend, understands” the gravity of the situation in the fight with the militants.

Recently, for example, he noted that he is not aware of any technical assistance from the US to the Philippines troops fighting in Marawi.

The Philippines is linked to the United States by a treaty on mutual defense; for a long time, the country relied on American weapons exclusively.

However, according to Daria Panarina, an expert at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences,, Rodrigo Duterte has a good reason not to trust the US now.

“In November 2016, the United States stopped weapons supplies to the Philippines. Back then, a large batch of rifles was to be shipped. The US canceled this deal on the pretext that the president [Duterte] was conducting a very inhuman policy towards his own people, first of all, in his fight against drug trafficking in the country,” Panarina said.

She further said that if he plans to follow such an ultimatum from the US, Duterte would be wise to look for other partners. He was not going to follow the US wishes and advice on how to run his own country as President.

“Now he is satisfied with any help from any country, especially if the weapons he receives are better than what the US provided him with in terms of both cost and quality,” the expert said.

Over the years, the United States has been the main partner of the Philippines in all areas, including providing various weapons. However, as a rule, these were military vehicles which had already been written off, as well as airplanes and rifles. The armament was not new and often worn out.

Over the past six months, the parties signed agreements worth almost $ 25 billion.

Center for the World Economy and Development of the Chinese Institute of International Affairs Jiang Yuchun said that with the current President of the Philippines, there is a reliable basis for the progressive development of Sino-Philippine relations.

“China and the Philippines in recent decades have consistently maintained friendly relations. In recent years, there have been some disagreements over the issue of the South China Sea, to which the non-regional countries have considerably contributed, which damaged bilateral relations,” Yunchun said.

However, with the coming of Duterte, the Philippines chose a strategy of rapprochement with China, as a result of which bilateral relations returned.

“Moreover, in the sphere of economic support, China, to the best of its ability, invests in ASEAN countries, including the Philippines. The last decade is rightfully called ‘golden’ for the development of China's relations with ASEAN. In the future we expect a ‘diamond period’ of relations,” he said.

He added that the increasing economic assistance between the two countries is a natural consequence of the development of these bilateral relations.

“In the future, appropriate contact and collaboration, especially economic cooperation, can be raised to a new, higher level,” the Chinese expert concluded.</s>Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail critics of his use of martial law in the violence-wracked south, days before the Supreme Court is set to rule on its legality this week.

Duterte declared military rule across the region of Mindanao, home to about 20 million people, in late May to quell what he said was a fast-growing threat from the Islamic State (IS) group there.

The Philippine leader has insisted he would ignore the findings of the court, which has constitutional oversight, vowing only to listen to recommendations from the armed forces.

"It's not dependent on the whim of the Supreme Court. Should I believe them? When I see the situation is still chaotic and you ask me to lift it? I will arrest you and put you behind bars," Duterte said in a speech before local officials on Saturday.

"We can talk of anything else and make compromises maybe but not when the interest of my country is at stake."

Government forces are continuing to battle militants occupying the city of Marawi, with aerial bombardment and ferocious street-to-street combat that has left some 400 people dead and forced nearly 400,000 people in the wider area to flee their homes.

Duterte has faced a backlash from opposition lawmakers, who last month asked the Supreme Court to reject the declaration of martial law, which they have slammed as unconstitutional.

The 1987 constitution imposes limits on martial law to prevent a repeat of the abuses under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was deposed by a famous "People Power" revolution the previous year.

The charter allows the Supreme Court to review the factual basis for proclaiming martial law, which is limited to an initial period of 60 days. If a president decides to extend martial law, congress can review and revoke it.</s>Rodrigo Duterte has been heavily criticised for his unprecedented crackdown on drugs.
President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte threatens the Philippine Daily Inquirer with an exposé. The newspaper has been a long-time ally of the politically prominent Aquino family (ever since the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution), as well as the minority opposition Liberal Party (of which the Vice President of the Philippines Leni Robredo is its prominent member); both have been consistent in their criticisms of the Duterty presidency and its policies since its inauguration in 2016.