Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte can be the anticrime czar in a Poe administration, Sen. Grace Poe said on Thursday, but she expects him to meet his stated deadline to eradicate crime in the country.
Poe was being nice in her turn and said she was grateful to Duterte for considering her to be the tourism or social welfare secretary in his administration, should he become president.
“I will return the favor. I want to offer him the post of crime czar. He said he would solve the problem in three to six months. If he fails, he will have to go. That is my challenge to him,” Poe told reporters at the Baseco compound in Tondo, Manila.
Poe did not say if this meant she would have to find another post for retired Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, who she earlier said would make a good crime czar.
She had been effusive in her praise of Querubin and his exploits as a soldier.
Duterte has received much flak for his campaign promise to eradicate crime within six months, with critics saying this was not doable and were but empty words.
The feisty mayor has also been criticized for his apparent disregard of due process and human rights, after boasting of killing petty criminals in his city.
He has also been linked to the Davao Death Squad, a shadowy vigilante group held responsible for the deaths and dumping of the bodies of petty criminals around the city.
Duterte and Poe alternated in the lead in recent preference surveys.