Rodrigo Duterte Biography

After being elected to the presidency of The Philippines in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte made international headlines as a foul-mouthed tough guy whose efforts to fight crime led to thousands of government-approved vigilante murders.

From a politically ambitious family on the island of Mindanao, he advanced to political power after the fall of Ferdinand Marcos. Duterte went from being a Davao City prosecutor to being elected mayor in 1988.

For more than two decades, Duterte was in charge of the third largest city in The Philippines, either as the mayor — or as the term-limited mayor who would be mayor again soon enough.

He won the presidency and went about using the same policies he had used in Davao to crack down on crime, a brutality that included open support of vigilante executions.

A few months into his presidency, Duterte declared martial law and began making headlines for “reorienting” his country’s foreign relationships away from the U.S. and toward China and Russia.

Despite international complaints about his human rights record, and increasing domestic economic woes, Duterte remained popular as president until the end of his term and had a significant influence on the 2022 election.