Duterte and I will halve crime rate, vows Cayetano

“Change is coming.” This was the message of presidential aspirant and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and his running mate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano who both appeared in what seemed to be a campaign video. SCREENGRAB from Cayetano’s Facebook page

IF THEY are elected next year, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday he and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte would halve the crime rate in just one year through aggressive law enforcement.

Cayetano is the running mate of Duterte, the PDP-Laban’s presidential candidate in next year’s general elections.

Taking his cue from Duterte’s warning to criminals and to the corrupt that this could be their last Christmas if they didn’t stop and change, Cayetano said he and the mayor would work to stamp out criminality, illegal drug trafficking and corruption in their first year in office.

Last Christmas

“My advice to the criminals, the drug lords, and the corrupt is to include turning over a new leaf in their New Year’s resolutions. The moment we have Duterte as president, this will be the last happy Christmas you will celebrate,” Cayetano said in a statement.

Next year, the criminals will spend Christmas behind bars, he added.

Cayetano said his and Duterte’s platform of government included a plan to bring down the national crime rate by half in one year.

He said they would implement an aggressive national anticrime campaign, starting in identified hot spots.

They would also set up a national hotline for emergencies similar to 911, he said.

According to Cayetano, Duterte is the only candidate with the ability to do for the country what he did to Davao City, which was to protect its residents from criminals and drug syndicates.

He was also able to combat graft and corruption in the local government, he added.

Real change

“Filipinos are tired of rampant crime and corruption in [the] government. When it comes to these problems, these should not be forever. Real change is needed, and it is needed now,” he said, adding that this was the foundation of his partnership with Duterte.

Duterte has earned a reputation as an iron-fisted official for his tough stance against crime and his constant boasting that he had killed many criminals.

But at the same time, he has drawn the ire of human rights advocates, who say that he should respect the law and due process, Cayetano said.