Rodrigo Duterte sworn in as Philippines president

Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated Rodrigo Duterte, after he was sworn in as the 16 president of the Republic of the Philippines on Thursday.

Mr Duterte was sworn in as the country’s 16th president on Thursday after his promises to crush crime won over the public in last month’s vote and left Mr Labang inundated with demands for free treats.

“Love of country, subordination of personal interests to the common good, concern and care for the helpless and the impoverished – these are among the lost and faded values that we seek to recover and revitalise as we commence our journey towards a better Philippines,”he said in a modest ceremony at the Malacanang Palace in Manila, the president’s official residence”.

“These sons of whores are destroying our children”.

“Do your duty”, Mr Duterte told an audience of police officers. “I will go to the extreme”. “You’re slapping us. You should count hours, I don’t like days”, Duterte said.

I know that there are those who do not approve of my methods of fighting criminality, the sale and use of illegal drugs and corruption.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he addresses the Philippine National Police (PNP) Assumption of Command Ceremony at police headquarters in Quezon city, metro Manila, Philippines, July 1, 2016.

Duterte had previously outlined a vision for his anti-crime program that included reintroducing the death penalty, reports the Guardian.

Unlike his statements during the election campaign which seemed to support extra-judicial killings of criminals, he assured the country that he would follow the law.

“Drugs have reached the hinterlands. what if you use your kangaroo courts to kill them to speed up the solution to our problem”, Mr Duterte said in a speech before the military’s top brass in Manila.

Aquino also launched the legal action with the UN-backed tribunal in The Hague, arguing that China’s claims to most of the strategically vital and resource-rich sea were in violation of global law.

But in a nod to his critics he also insisted that he “knows the limits” of his power.

“When I become president, by the grace of God, I serve the people, not you”, Duterte told reporters in the final stages of the election campaign, referring to the elite.

In his first marching orders to his Cabinet secretaries and heads of agencies, Duterte directed them to minimize the requirements and processing time in all applications, and to refrain from changing the rules in government contracts and transactions. Those figures suggest that the incoming Duterte government will seek to keep the door to Beijing open and bring ties back on the track.

Duterte is also the first president to come from the country’s volatile south, scene of a decades-long separatist insurgency by minority Muslims. “I serve everyone. But not only one”.

In an era where populist politicians are on the rise around the world, Duterte also shrewdly capitalised on his image as a man-of-the people with no tolerance for the nation’s political and business elite.

“F*** you United Nations, you can’t even solve the Middle East carnage. couldn’t even lift a finger in Africa [with the] butchering [of] the black people”.

“I would like to invite you now to raise your glasses to the well-being of his Excellency and to the propriety and progress of the Filipino people”.

On Thursday, Mr Duterte offered a muted message of friendship to the global community.