Duterte: Change 'must start with us and within us'

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte assumed Thursday his post as the country’s 16th chief executive with an appeal for Filipinos to be part of the change the country needs and a vow to fortify the people’s faith in their government.

 

Duterte said “real change” and “malasakit” or concern — campaign slogans that catapulted him to the presidency — were not only conceptualized to secure votes.

 

“These were battle cries articulated by me in behalf of the people hungry for genuine and meaningful change. But the change, if it is to be permanent and significant, must start with us and in us,” Duterte said in his profanity-free inaugural address that lasted for 15 minutes.

 

“To borrow the language of (National Artist for Literature) F. Sionil Jose, we have become our own worst enemies. And we must have the courage and the will to change ourselves,” he added.

 

Duterte said no leader, however strong, can succeed at anything unless he has the support and cooperation of the people he is tasked to lead and has sworn to serve.

 

“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 revitalize as we commence our journey towards a better Philippines,” the president said.

 

“The ride will be rough. But come and join me just the same. Together, shoulder to shoulder, let us take the first wobbly steps in this quest,” he added.

 

Duterte, who won by a landslide during the May 9 polls with 16.6 million votes, also asked fellow public servants to help him strengthen the Filipinos’ trust in the government.

 

“It is the people from whom democratic governments draw strength and this administration is no exception. That is why we have to listen to the murmurings of the people, feel their pulse, supply their needs and fortify their faith and trust in us whom they elected to public office,” he said.

Duterte, who previously vowed a government for the helpless, hopeless and the defenseless, said the foundations of his administration would be built upon the ideas of American presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

 

Quoting Roosevelt, Duterte said the test of government is “not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have little.”

 

He also recited Lincoln’s famous lines about social classes.

 

“You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong; You cannot help the poor by discouraging the rich; You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer; You cannot further the brotherhood by inciting class hatred among men,” the president said.

 

Duterte assured Filipinos that he would not protect anybody’s interest but that of the nation.

 

“Let me remind in the end of this talk, that I was elected to the presidency to serve the entire country. I was not elected to serve the interests of any one person or any group or any one class. I serve everyone and not only one,” Duterte said.

 

“That is why I have adopted as an article of faith, the following lines written by someone whose name I could no longer recall. He said:  ‘I have no friends to serve, I have no enemies to harm.”

 

Duterte, who earlier revealed that he would not have run for president if he could turn back time, said he is now ready to serve his countrymen.

 

“I am here because I love my country and I love the people of the Philippines. I am here, why? Because I am ready to start my work for the nation,” he said.