House of Representatives of the Philippines
The House of Representatives of the Philippines, is the lower house of the Congress of the Philippines. It is commonly referred to as Congress and informally referred to as Camara or Kamara. Members of the House are styled as representative and sometimes informally called Congressmen/Congresswomen and are elected to a three-year term, they can not serve more than three consecutive terms. Around eighty percent of congressmen are district representatives, representing a particular geographical area. There are 234 legislative districts in the country, each composed of about 250,000 people. There are party-list representatives elected through the party-list system who constitute not more than twenty percent of the total number of representatives. Aside from needing its agreement to every bill in order to be sent for the President's signature to become law, the House of Representatives has power to impeach certain officials and all money bills must originate from the lower house; the House of Representatives is headed by the Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of Pampanga.
The official headquarters of the House of Representatives is at the Batasang Pambansa located in the Batasan Hills in Quezon City in Metro Manila. The building is simply called Batasan and the word has become a metonym to refer to the House of Representatives. At the beginning of American colonial rule, from March 16, 1900, the sole national legislative body was the Philippine Commission with all members appointed by the President of the United States. Headed by the Governor-General of the Philippines the body exercised all legislative authority given to it by the President and the United States Congress until October 1907 when it was joined by the Philippine Assembly. William Howard Taft was chosen to be the first American civilian Governor-General and the first leader of this Philippine Commission, which subsequently became known as the Taft Commission; the Philippine Bill of 1902, a basic law, or organic act, of the Insular Government, mandated that once certain conditions were met a bicameral, or two-chamber, Philippine Legislature would be created with the existing, all-appointed Philippine Commission as the upper house and the Philippine Assembly as the lower house.
This bicameral legislature was inaugurated in October 1907. Under the leadership of Speaker Sergio Osmeña and Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon, the Rules of the 59th United States Congress was adopted as the Rules of the Philippine Legislature. Osmeña and Quezon led the Nacionalista Party, with a platform of independence from the United States, into successive electoral victories against the Progresista Party and the Democrata Party, which first advocated United States statehood opposed immediate independence, it is this body, founded as the Philippine Assembly, that would continue in one form or another, with a few different names, up until the present day. In 1916, the Jones Act the Philippine Autonomy Act, changed the legislative system; the Philippine Commission was abolished and a new elected, bicameral Philippine Legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was established. The Nacionalistas continued their electoral dominance at this point, although they were split into two factions led by Osmeña and Quezon.
The legislative system was changed again in 1935. The 1935 Constitution established a unicameral National Assembly, but in 1940, through an amendment to the 1935 Constitution, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was adopted. Upon the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines in 1946, Republic Act No. 6 was enacted providing that on the date of the proclamation of the Republic of the Philippines, the existing Congress would be known as the First Congress of the Republic. The "Liberal bloc" of the Nacionalistas permanently split from their ranks, creating the Liberal Party; these two will contest all of the elections in. The party of the ruling president wins the elections in the House of Representatives; this set up continued until President Ferdinand Marcos abolished Congress. He would rule by decree after the 1973 Constitution abolished the bicameral Congress and created a unicameral Batasang Pambansa parliamentary system of government, as parliamentary election would not occur in 1978.
Marcos' Kilusang Bagong Lipunan won all of the seats except those from the Central Visayas ushering in an era of KBL dominance, which will continue until the People Power Revolution overthrew Marcos in 1986. The 1987 Constitution restored the presidential system of government together with a bicameral Congress of the Philippines. One deviation from the previous setup was the introduction of the mid-term election. Instead, a multi-party system evolved. Corazon Aquino who nominally had no party, supported the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP.
President of the Senate of the Philippines
The President of the Senate of the Philippines, or more popularly known as the Senate President, is the presiding officer and the highest-ranking official of the Senate of the Philippines, third highest and most powerful official in the Government of the Philippines. He/she is elected by the entire body to be their leader; the Senate President is second in line in succession for the presidency, behind the Vice President of the Philippines and in front of the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines. The current Senate President of the 17th Congress of the Philippines is Tito Sotto, elected on May 21, 2018; the Senate President is elected by the majority of the members of the Senate from among themselves. Although Senate presidents are elected at the start of each Congress, there had been numerous instances of Senate coups in which a sitting Senate President is unseated in the middle of session. Term-sharing agreements among senators who are both eyeing the position of the Senate President played a role in changing the leadership of the Senate, but in a smooth manner, the peaceful transition of power and this was done two times in 1999 and in 2006.
Unlike most Senate Presidents that are the symbolic presiding officers of the upper house, the Senate President of the Philippines wields considerate power by influencing the legislative agenda and has the ability to vote not just in order to break ties, although the Senate President is traditionally the last senator to vote. A tied vote, means that the motion is lost, that the Senate President cannot cast a tie-breaking vote since that would mean that the presiding officer would have had voted twice. According to the Rule 3 of the Rules of the Senate, the Senate President has the powers and duties to: To preside over the sessions of the Senate on the days and at the hours designated by it; the Senate President is the ex officio chairman of the Commission on Appointments, a constitutional body within the Congress that has the sole power to confirm all appointments made by the President of the Philippines. Under Section 2 of Chapter 2 of the Rules of the Commission on Appointments, the powers and duties of the Senate President as its Ex-Officio Chairman are as follows: to issue calls for the meetings of the commission.
And if other impeachable officers other than the president such as the Ombudsman is on an impeachment trial, the Senate President is the presiding officer and shall be the last to vote on the judgment on such cases according to the Senate Rules of Procedure in Impeachment Trials the Senate adopted on March 23, 2011. In the Senate, he supervises the committees and attended its hearings and meetings if necessary and such committee reports are being submitted to his/her office; the Senate was created on 1916 with the abolition of the Philippine Commission as the upper house with the Philippine Assembly as the lower house. The Senate and the House of Representatives comprised the Philippine Legislature. Representation was by senatorial district. All Senators from 1941 onwards were elected at-large, with the whole Philippines as one constituency. There are five living former Senate Presidents: Living Former Senate Presidents Legend: Boldface is still incumbent senator. List of Senators of the Philippines Roll of Senate Presidents
Local government in the Philippines
Local government in the Philippines called local government units or LGUs, are divided into three levels – provinces and independent cities. In one area, above provinces and independent cities, is an autonomous region, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. Below barangays in some cities and municipalities are puroks. All of these, with the exception of sitios and puroks, elect their own legislatures. Sitios and puroks are led by elected barangay councilors. Provinces and independent cities are organized into national government regions but those are administrative regions and not separately governed areas with their own elected governments. According to the Constitution of the Philippines, the local governments "shall enjoy local autonomy", in which the Philippine president exercises "general supervision". Congress enacted the Local Government Code of the Philippines in 1991 to "provide for a more responsive and accountable local government structure instituted through a system of decentralization with effective mechanisms of recall and referendum, allocate among the different local government units their powers and resources, provide for the qualifications, election and removal, salaries and functions and duties of local officials, all other matters relating to the organization and operation of local units."
Autonomous regions have more powers than other local governments. The constitution limits the creation of autonomous regions to Muslim Mindanao and the Cordilleras but only one autonomous region exists: the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In 2001, a plebiscite in the ARMM confirmed the previous composition of the autonomous region and added Basilan and Marawi City in Lanao del Sur. Isabela City remains a part of the province of Basilan despite rejecting inclusion in the ARMM. A Cordillera Autonomous Region has never been formed because no plebiscite has received the required support. An autonomous region is governed by the regional governor and a legislature such as the ARMM Regional Legislative Assembly. Outside the lone autonomous region, the provinces are the highest-level local government; the provinces are organized into component municipalities. A province is governed by a legislature known as the Sangguniang Panlalawigan. Municipal government in the Philippines is divided into three – independent cities, component cities, municipalities.
Several cities across the country are "independent cities" which means that they are not governed by a province though like Iloilo City the provincial capitol might be in the city. Independent city residents hold provincial offices. Far more cities are a part of a province. Municipalities are always a part of a province except for Pateros, separated from Rizal to form Metro Manila. Cities and municipalities are governed by mayors and legislatures, which are called the Sangguniang Panlungsod in cities and the Sangguniang Bayan in municipalities; every city and municipality in the Philippines is divided into barangays, the smallest of the Local Government Units. Barangays can be further divided into sitios and puroks but those divisions do not have leaders elected in formal elections supervised by the national government. A barangay's executive is the Punong Barangay or barangay captain and its legislature is the Sangguniang Barangay, composed of barangay captain, the Barangay Kagawads and the SK chairman.
The SK chairman leads a separate assembly for youth, the Sangguniang Kabataan or SK. Local governments have two branches: legislative. All courts in the Philippines are under the Supreme Court of the Philippines and therefore there are no local-government controlled judicial branches. Nor do local governments have any prosecutors or public defenders, as those are under the jurisdiction of the national government; the executive branch is composed of the regional governor for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, governor for the provinces, mayor for the cities and municipalities, the barangay captain for the barangays. The legislatures review the resolutions enacted by the legislatures below. Aside from regular and ex-officio members, the legislatures above the barangay level have three sectoral representatives, one each from women, agricultural or industrial workers, other sectors. All elected officials have 3-year terms, can only serve a maximum of three consecutive terms before being ineligible for reelection.
*a Sangguniang Kabataan official who has surpassed 21 years of age while in office is allowed to serve for the rest of the term. There are 21 offices in a government. There are some optional offices to the government. Legend: √ - Mandatory? - Optional X - Not Applicable Source: Local Government Code of 1991 Among the social services and facilities that local government should provide, as stipulated in Section 17 of the Local Government Code, are the following: facilities and research services for agriculture and fishery activities, which include seedling nurseries, demonstration farms, irrigation systems.
Congress of the Philippines
The Congress of the Philippines, is the national legislature of the Philippines. It is a bicameral body consisting of the Senate, the House of Representatives, although colloquially, the term "congress" refers to just the latter; the Senate is composed of 24 senators. Each senator, serves a total of six years; the senators do not represent any geographical district. The House of Representatives is composed of 297 congressmen. Sec. 5 Art. VI of the Constitution states that the House "shall be composed of not more than 250 members, unless otherwised fixed by law..." There are two types of congressmen: the sectoral representatives. The district congressmen represent a particular geographical district of the country. All provinces in the country are composed of at least one congressional district. Several cities have their own congressional districts, with some composed of two or more representatives; the sectoral congressmen represent the minority sectors of the population. This enables these minority groups to be represented in the Congress, when they would otherwise not be represented properly through district representation.
Known as party-list representatives, sectoral congressmen represent labor unions, rights groups, other organizations. The Constitution provides that the Congress shall convene for its regular session every year beginning on the 4th Monday of July. A regular session can last until thirty days before the opening of its next regular session in the succeeding year; the President may, call special sessions which are held between regular legislative sessions to handle emergencies or urgent matters. When the Philippines was under colonial rule as part of the Spanish East Indies, the colony was not given representation to the Spanish Cortes, it was only in 1809 where the colony was made an integral part of Spain and was given representation in the Cortes. On March 19, 1812, the Constitution of Cádiz was approved, which led to the colony's first representatives at the Cortes in September 24, 1812 by Pedro Pérez de Tagle and José Manuel Coretto. However, with Napoleon I's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, his brother Joseph Bonaparte was removed from the Spanish throne, the Cádiz Constitution was replaced by the Cortes on May 24, 1816 with a more conservative constitution that removed Philippine representation on the Cortes, among other things.
Restoration of Philippine representation to the Cortes was one of the grievances by the Illustrados, the educated class during the late 19th century. The Illustrados' campaign transformed into the Philippine Revolution that aimed to overthrow Spanish rule. Proclaiming independence on June 12, 1898, President Emilio Aguinaldo ordered the convening of a revolutionary congress at Malolos; the Malolos Congress, among other things, approved the 1899 Constitution of the Philippines. With the approval of the Treaty of Paris, the Spanish sold the Philippines to the United States; the revolutionaries, attempting to prevent American conquest, launched the Philippine–American War, but were defeated when Aguinaldo was captured on 1901. When the Philippines was under American colonial rule, the legislative body was the Philippine Commission which existed from 1900 to 1907; the President of the United States appointed the members of the Philippine Commission. Furthermore, two Filipinos served as Resident Commissioners to the House of Representatives of the United States from 1907 to 1935 only one from 1935 to 1946.
The Resident Commissioners did not have voting rights. The Philippine Bill of 1902 mandated the creation of a bicameral or a two-chamber Philippine Legislature with the Philippine Commission as the Upper House and the Philippine Assembly as the Lower House; this bicameral legislature was inaugurated in 1907. Through the leadership of Speaker Sergio Osmeña and Floor Leader Manuel L. Quezon, the Rules of the 59th United States Congress was adopted as the Rules of the Philippine Legislature. In 1916, the Jones Law changed the legislative system; the Philippine Commission was abolished, a new bicameral Philippine Legislature consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was established. The legislative system was changed again in 1935; the 1935 Constitution, aside from instituting the Commonwealth which gave the Filipinos more role in government, established a unicameral National Assembly. But in 1940, through an amendment to the 1935 Constitution, a bicameral Congress of the Philippines consisting of a House of Representatives and a Senate was created.
Those elected in 1941 would not serve until 1945. The invading Japanese convened its own National Assembly. With the Japanese defeat in 1945, the Commonwealth and its Congress was restored; the same set up will continue until the Americans granted independence on July 4, 1946. Upon the inauguration of the Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946, Republic Act No. 6 was enacted providing that on the date of the proclamation of the Republic of the Philippines, the existing Congress would be known as the First Congress of the Republic. Successive Congresses were elected until President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 23, 1972. Marcos ruled by decree; as early as 1970, Marcos had convened a constitutional convention to revise the 1935 constitution. It abolished the bicameral Congress and created a unicameral National Assembly, which would be known as the Batasang Pambansa in a semi-presidential system of government; the batasan elected a prime ministe
Lakas–CMD
Lakas–CMD is a center-right political party in the Philippines, with influence of Christian democracy and Islamic democracy. The current party originated in 2009 with the merger of the original Lakas–CMD party with the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino; the party produced one president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president when the two parties merged in 2009. With Arroyo unable to run for a new term due to term limits, the party lost the 2010 presidential election with Gilberto Teodoro as its presidential nominee; the party retained its two senators, both incumbents, in the Senate election and became a part of the Liberal Party-led majority coalition. On May 11, 2012, the party decided to revert to its original name and drop Arroyo's KAMPI from the coalition. Lakas–CMD is one of the parties in opposition. In 2013, Sen. Bong Revilla assumed the new chairman of Lakas party, he is supposed to be the standard bearer of the party in the 2016 Presidential Election prior to his detainment at PNP custodial center at Camp Crame due to pork barrel allegations.
Lakas–CMD has always focused on economic growth and development, stronger ties with the United States, creation of jobs, strong cooperation between the executive and legislative branches of government. It is known for its advocacy of a shift from the present presidential system to a parliamentary form of government through constitutional amendments and through establishing peace talks with Muslim separatists and communist rebels; the party democracy is distinct in its ecumenical inclusion of Muslim leaders in its political alliance. Lakas ng Tao was formed in December 1991 for the 1992 elections as retired General, then-Defense Secretary, Fidel V. Ramos and former Cebu Governor Emilio Mario "Lito" R. Osmeña were running for president and vice-president respectively, it was formed when Ramos bolted from the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, after he had lost in the bid for the presidency under that said banner to Speaker Ramon Mitra. The party was formed out of two parties: Ramos's Partido Lakas ng Tao and the National Union of Christian Democrats of Raul Manglapus.
As they coalesced, the party became known as Lakas ng Tao-National Union of Christian Democrats, with Lakas ng Tao just shortened to "Lakas" and abbreviated as Lakas-NUCD. In 1994, it formed a coalition government with the LDP for the 1995 legislative elections; this coalition, dubbed the "Lakas-Laban Coalition", won a majority in both Houses of Congress. In the 1997 Lakas National Convention, the party nominated House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr. of Pangasinan after a close nominal fight with Defense Secretary Renato de Villa as its nominee to the presidency against the opposition's Vice President Joseph Estrada in the 1998 elections. By this time, it was joined by the Union of Muslim Democrats of the Philippines of former ambassador to Egypt and Oman Sanchez A. Ali to form Lakas ng EDSA-National Union of Christian Democrats-United Muslim Democrats of the Philippines. Secretary de Villa bolted the party and formed Partido ng Demokratikong Reporma for the 1998 elections. Lakas nominated then-Senator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of Pampanga as its candidate as vice president.
Arroyo had intended to run for president under her party, Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino. De Venecia lost to Vice President Estrada by a significant plurality, while Arroyo won the vice presidency in the same manner while her KAMPI party was in hiatus. In the 2004 elections, the name changed again to the current Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, or Lakas–CMD. However, the meaning of Lakas in the party name is now referred to as "Lakas ng EDSA" which means "The Strength of EDSA" than the original Lakas ng Tao which means "The Strength of the People" or "People Power." This is the name that it used when it ran in 2004 elections under the K-4 coalition. President Arroyo, who succeeded the deposed President Joseph Estrada, was the K-4 Coalition candidate for president in the 2004 election winning over her opponents Fernando Poe, Jr. and Senator Panfilo Lacson. At the onset of 2006, Lakas–CMD was torn by factional rivalry between supporters of President Arroyo and supporters of former President Fidel V. Ramos.
Issues include transitory provisions in a proposed Constitution to scrap mid-term elections set for 2007 and calls for her to step down in time for the elections, related to the "no-el" controversy. The party held its Annual Party Directorate Meeting on January 2006 to discuss these matters. There are no official results available of the 2007 elections released by the party but according to the Philippine House of Representatives, the party holds 79 out of 235 seats. On January 16, 2008, Lakas spokesman and legal counsel Raul Lambino stated that Lakas–CMD released the list of senatorial bets for 2010—spokesman in 2010. Except for Parañaque Representative Eduardo Zialcita, they were not yet identified, but Lambino named incumbent Senators Ramon Revilla, Jr. and Lito Lapid, former senator Ralph Recto and former Congressman Prospero Pichay as among those considered. Former Speaker of the House Jose de Venecia, Jr. resigned his post as president of Lakas–CMD on March 10, 2008.
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
The Chief Justice of the Philippines presides over the Supreme Court of the Philippines and is the highest judicial officer of the government of the Philippines. As of November 28, 2018, the position is held by Lucas Bersamin, appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte following the mandatory retirement of his predecessor Teresita Leonardo-de Castro in October 2018; the Chief Justice, first named in June 11, 1901 in the person of Cayetano Arellano, is the oldest existing major governmental office continually held by a Filipino, preceding the presidency and vice presidency and the members of the House of Representatives. The power to appoint the chief justice lies with the president, who makes the selection from a list of three nominees prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council. There is no material difference in the process of selecting a chief justice from that in the selection of associate justices; as with the other justices of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is obliged to retire upon reaching the age of 70.
In the 1935 constitution, any person appointed by the president has to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments. The Constitution does not ascribe any formal role to the chief justice other than as an ex-officio chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council and as the presiding officer in any impeachment trial of the president; the chief justice is required to certify every decision, rendered by the court. He or she carries only 1 vote out of 15 in the court, is regarded, vis-a-vis the other justices, as the primus inter pares rather than as the administrative superior of the other members of the court. Still, the influence a chief justice may bear within the court and judiciary, on the national government cannot be underestimated. In the public eye, any particular Supreme Court is identified with the identity of the incumbent chief justice, hence appellations such as "The Fernando Court" or "The Puno Court". Moreover, the chief justice retains high public visibility, unlike the associate justices, who tend to labor in relative anonymity, with exceptions such as Associate Justice J. B. L. Reyes in the 1950s to 1970s.
By tradition, it is the chief justice who swears into office the President of the Philippines. One notable deviation from that tradition came in 1986, again in 2010. Due to the exceptional political circumstances culminating in the People Power Revolution, on February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as President before Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee in San Juan just minutes before Ferdinand Marcos took his own oath of office as President before Chief Justice Ramon Aquino. Marcos fled into exile that night. More than two decades afterwards, Benigno Simeon Aquino III followed in his mother's footsteps by having Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales swear him in, rather than Chief Justice Renato Corona. Six years in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office by Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, his classmate at San Beda College of Law, instead of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno; the Chief Justice names the three justices each from the Supreme Court in the memberships of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and the Senate Electoral Tribunal.
The chief justice is the chief executive officer of the Philippine judiciary system and together with the whole Supreme Court, exercises administrative supervision over all courts and personnel. José Yulo is the only former Speaker of the House of Representatives to be subsequently appointed as chief justice. Another, Querube Makalintal, would be elected as Speaker of the Interim Batasang Pambansa after his retirement from the court. On the other hand, Marcelo Fernan would, after his resignation from the court, be elected to the Senate and serve as President of the Senate. Other chief justices served in prominent positions in public service after their retirement include Manuel Moran, Hilario Davide, Jr.. In addition, César Bengzon was elected as the first Filipino to sit as a judge on the International Court of Justice shortly after his retirement in 1966. Roberto Concepcion was reputedly so disappointed with the court's ruling in Javellana v. Executive Secretary where the majority affirmed the validity of the 1973 Constitution despite recognizing the flaws in its ratification, that he retired 2 months prior to his reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Thirteen years after the ouster of Marcos, the 83-year-old Concepcion was appointed a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission tasked with drafting a new constitution. Drawing from his experiences as chief justice in the early days of martial law, Concepcion introduced several new innovations designed to assure the independence of the Supreme Court, such as the Judicial and Bar Council and the express conferment on the court the power to review any acts of government; the longest period one person served as chief justice was 18 years, 294 days in the case of Cayetano Arellano, who served from 1901 to 1920. Arellano was 73 years, 29 days old upon his resignation, the greatest age reached by an incumbent chief j
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Roa Duterte known as Digong and Rody, is a Filipino politician, the 16th and current President of the Philippines and the first from Mindanao, to hold the office. He is the chair of the ruling PDP–Laban party. Taking office at 71 years old in June 2016, Duterte is the oldest person to assume the Philippine presidency. Duterte studied political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, graduating in 1968, before obtaining a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972, he worked as a lawyer and was a prosecutor for Davao City, before becoming vice mayor and, mayor of the city in the wake of the Philippine Revolution of 1986. Duterte was among the longest-serving mayors in the Philippines, serving seven terms and totaling more than 22 years in office. Described as a populist and a nationalist, Duterte's political success has been aided by his vocal support for the extrajudicial killing of drug users and other criminals. Human rights groups have documented over 1,400 killings by death squads operating in Davao between 1998 and May 2016.
A 2009 report by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights confirmed the "systematic practice of extrajudicial killings" by the Davao Death Squad. Duterte has alternately denied his involvement; the Office of the Ombudsman closed an investigation in January 2016 stating that they found no evidence that the Davao Death Squad exists, no evidence to connect the police or Duterte with the killings. The case has since been reopened. Duterte has confirmed that he killed criminal suspects as mayor of Davao. On May 9, 2016, Duterte won the Philippine presidential election with 39.01% of the votes, defeating four other candidates, namely Mar Roxas of the Liberal Party, Senator Grace Poe, former vice president Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance, the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago of the People's Reform Party. During his campaign, he promised to kill tens of thousands of criminals and end crime within six months, his domestic policy has focused on combating the illegal drug trade by initiating the Philippine Drug War.
According to the Philippine National Police the death total passed 7,000 in January 2017, after which the police stopped publishing data. Following criticism from United Nations human rights experts that extrajudicial killings had increased since his election, Duterte threatened to withdraw the Philippines from the UN and form a new organization with China and African nations, he has declared his intention to pursue an "independent foreign policy", sought to distance the Philippines from the United States and European nations and pursue closer ties with China and Russia. Duterte was born on March 1945, in Maasin, his father was Vicente G. Duterte, a Cebuano lawyer, his mother, Soledad Duterte, was a school teacher from Cabadbaran, Agusan and a civic leader of Maranao descent. Duterte's father was mayor of Danao and subsequently the provincial governor of Davao province. Rodrigo's cousin Ronald was mayor of Cebu City from 1983 to 1986. Ronald's father, Ramon Duterte held the position from 1957 to 1959.
The Dutertes consider the Cebu-based political families of the Durano and the Almendras clan as relatives. Duterte has relatives from the Roa clan in Leyte through his mother's side. Duterte's family lived in Maasin, in his father's hometown in Danao, until he was four years old; the Dutertes moved to Mindanao in 1948 but still went back and forth to the Visayas until 1949. They settled in the Davao Region in 1950. Vicente worked. Soledad worked as a teacher until 1952. Duterte went for a year, he spent his remaining elementary days at the Santa Ana Elementary School in Davao City, where he graduated in 1956. He finished his secondary education in the High School Department of the then-Holy Cross College of Digos in today's city of Digos in the now defunct Davao province, after being expelled twice from previous schools, including one in Ateneo de Davao University High School due to misconduct, he graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines in Manila.
He obtained a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972. In the same year, he passed the bar exam. Duterte became a Special Counsel at the City Prosecution Office in Davao City from 1977–79, Fourth Assistant City Prosecutor from 1979–81, Third Assistant City Prosecutor from 1981–83, Second Assistant City Prosecutor from 1983–86. Duterte has said. After he was challenged by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines and AdDU officials to name the priest and file a case against him, Duterte revealed the priest's name as Fr. Mark Falvey, SJ; the Jesuits of the Society of Jesus in the Philippines confirmed that according to press reports in the United States, in May 2007, the Society of Jesus agreed to a tentative payout of USD16 million to settle claims that Falvey sexually abused at least nine children in Los Angeles from 1959 to 1975. Accusations against Falvey began in 2002, he was never charged with a crime. Additionally in May 2008, the Diocese of Sacramento paid $100,000 settlement to a person raped and molested by Mark's brother, Fr.
Arthur Falvey. However, it was not indicated in the report if Mark Falvey was
Philippines
