After foul-mouthed race, Duterte prepares for war on crime, graft and booze

'If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose either you kill me or I kill you'

Philippines' incoming president Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to crack down on crime, punish corrupt policemen with death and repeated that he will enforce a liquor ban and night curfew.

Duterte, a longtime mayor of the southern city of Davao, captivated Filipinos with his vows of brutal but quick solutions to crime and poverty, while offering himself as a decisive strongman capable of resolving problems in the society.

During his campaign, Duterte pledged to kill tens of thousands of criminals and joked about raping an Australian missionary. His campaign symbol was a clenched fist.

His spokesman Peter Lavina said one of the rules Duterte will enforce is a night-time curfews for minors after 10 pm and a ban on the serving of alcohol after midnight would also be considered. These rules will be imposed nationwide.

"This liquor ban is because we have to work the next day," he said. "It has nothing to do with denying us of our freedoms."

Duterte had also warned the corrupt police personnel. "If you are a policeman and stick to your racket, choose either you kill me or I kill you," he said.

Although the official results are yet to be declared, an unofficial tally showed that Duterte had an insurmountable lead in Monday's election of 6.1 million votes.

The 71-year-old had also promised during a foul-mouthed campaign that he would change the centralised system to a federal parliamentary form of government, a policy that has been popular in provinces far from Manila.

Duterte also offered an olive branch to his rivals following a deeply divisive campaign which had seen President Benigno Aquino brand him a dictator in the making who would bring terror to the nation.

"I want to reach out my hand and let us begin the healing now," said Duterte. His campaigning style and ability to convert the conventional political wisdom have drawn comparisons with US Republican Donald Trump.

The election commission was not expected to officially proclaim Duterte as the winner of Monday's vote for more than a week. However it had authorised the PPCRV, a Catholic Church-run poll monitor, to tally the votes, which showed that with about 94 percent of the total counted votes Duterte could not lose.

As the results came in on Tuesday morning in an interview with AFP, Duterte said: "It's with humility, extreme humility, that I accept this, the mandate of the people. I feel a sense of gratitude to the Filipino people."

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