THE BIOGRAPHY OF PRESIDENT RODRIGO ROA DUTERTE

Also Known As: Digong, Rody

Born: March 28, 1945,
Maasin, Philippines
Parents: Vicente and Soledad Rao Duterte
Education: Law degree Lyceum of the Philippines University
Experience: Mayor of Davao City, 1988–2016; President of the
Phillippines 2016–present.
Spouse: Elizabeth Zimmerman (wife, 1973–2000), Cielito "Honeylet" Avanceña (partner, mid-1990s to
present)
Children:
- Sarah Duterte
- Sebastian Duterte
- Kitty Duerte
- Paulo Duterte
4Famous Quote: "Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just
what I did as mayor. You drug pushers, hold-up men and do-nothings, you better go out. Because I’ll kill
you. I dump all of you into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there."

Duterte is the first president from Mindanao and the oldest person to be elected president of the
Philippines.He is also the first Philippine president to have worked in the three branches of the
government. He is also the first graduate of Lyceum of the Philippines University and San Beda College
of Law to become president, the first president who had his marriage annulled,the second Cebuano to
become president (the first being Sergio Osmeña), the third Cebuano-speaking to become president (the
first being Osmeña and second was Carlos P. Garcia), the fourth Visayan to become president (the first
was Osmeña, second was Manuel Roxas, and the third was Garcia)and the third mayor (of Davao City in
his case) to be elected president (the first former-mayor president was Emilio Aguinaldo of Cavite El
Viejo, and the second was Joseph Estrada of San Juan, Metro Manila).

Early Life

Rodrigo Roa Duterte (also known as Digong and Rody) was born in the town of Maasin, in Southern
Leyte, the eldest son of local politician Vicente Duterte (1911–1968), and Soledad Roa (1916–2012), a
teacher and activist. He and two sisters (Jocellyn and Eleanor) and two brothers (Benjamin and
Emmanuel) moved to Davao City when their father was made the governor of the now-defunct Davao
province.
Education

He attended high school at the Ateneo de Davao, where he has said he was a victim of sexual abuse by
Rev. Mark Falvey, an American Jesuit priest who died in California in 1975—in 2007, nine of his
American victims were paid $16 million by the Jesuit church for Falvey's abuse. Duterte was
expelled from school for retaliating against another priest by filling a squirt gun with ink and spraying
the priest's white cassock. He skipped classes and has told audiences that it took him seven years
to finish high school.

Marriage and Family

In 1973, Duterte eloped with Elizabeth Zimmerman, a former flight attendant. They have three children
Paolo, Sara, and Sebastian. That marriage was annulled in 2000.

He met Cielito "Honeylet" Avanceña in the mid-1990s, and he considers her his second wife, although
they have not married. They have one daughter, Veronica. Duterte has no official first lady but said
during his presidential campaign that he had two wives and two girlfriends.

Political Career

After graduation, Duterte practiced law in Davao City, and eventually became a prosecutor. In the mid-
1980s, his mother Soledad was a leader in the Yellow Friday Movement against the Philippine dictator
Ferdinand Marcos. After Corazon Aquino became the Philippine leader, she offered Soledad the post of
vice-mayor of Davao City. Soledad asked that Rodrigo be given the position instead.

In 1988, Rodrigo Duterte ran for Mayor of Davao City and won, eventually serving seven terms over 22
years.

Death Squads

When Duterte took over the mayorship of Davao, the city was war-torn, the result of the Philippine
Revolution leading to the ouster of Marcos. Duterte established tax breaks and pro-business policies,
but at the same time, he founded his first death squad in Davao City in 1988. A small group of police
officers and others were selected to hunt down and kill criminals; the membership eventually grew to
500.

One of the men who has admitted to being on the squad reported that there were at least 1,400 or
more people killed, with their bodies dumped in the sea, the river, or a different city. The man said he
received 6,000 pesos for each of the fifty people he personally killed. A second man said he received
orders from Duterte to kill at least 200 people, including political rivals, one of whom was journalist and
outspoken critic, Jun Pala, in 2009.
Presidential Election

On May 9, 2016, Duterte won the Philippine presidential election with 39 percent of the popular vote,
far outweighing the four other candidates. During his campaign, he repeatedly promised to bring the
practice of extrajudicial killing of drug users and other criminals to the country as a whole, and he has
fulfilled that promise.

Prepared by: Elorna Abegael C. Gario