Duterte can rectify Aquino's foreign policies

Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte talks to reporters in Davao city in southern Philippines, May 9, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

RODRIGO DUTERTE, the strongman mayor of the Philippines' southern city of Davao for two decades, is set to become the country's new president. Global Times commented on Tuesday:

Regularly compared to the controversial US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, the 71-year-old Duterte has promised to end drug crime in three to six months and improve security by executing 100,000 suspected criminals if elected as the Philippine leader.

His proposed hard-line policies, which are very different from those of the outgoing administration, have captured the public's attention.

The triumph of Duterte points to the fact that the Philippine people are unhappy with the six-year rule of Benigno Aquino III.

Although the country's economic growth has been 6.3 percent a year on average, the stable economic development has failed to narrow the income gap between the few haves and the huge population of have-nots. And Aquino's constant promotion of nationalism and accommodation of Washington has not given Manila an edge in the South China Sea disputes with Beijing either.

Duterte opposes the idea of seeking a war with China and believes that the Philippine's arbitration case challenging China's territorial sovereignty in the South China Sea issue would make little difference to the situation.

Of course, a new president is unlikely to cause a sea change. For one thing, Duterte, whose political career has been based in the city of Davao for decades, lacks political support to lead the whole country. For another, it will be hard to deliver on his audacious promises to reduce crime and corruption.

But what he can and should do is revise Manila's aggressive China policy and seek to improve the bilateral diplomatic relations, instead of picking sides between Beijing and Washington.