Duterte promises clean government

DAGUPAN CITY, Pangasinan -- Presidential candidate Rodrigo R. Duterte said the government would be free of corruption under his administration if he makes it all the way to Malacañang.

“I guarantee you, it will be a clean government. There will be no corruption,” Duterte told a mammoth crowd composed of Lyceum Northwestern University (LNU) students and Dagupan City residents during a sortie here Wednesday afternoon.

Duterte, the tough-talking mayor of Davao City, said corruption, illegal drugs and criminality are what ails the country today and vowed to stop all these in the first three to six months of his term should he get elected.

The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP Laban) standard bearer, who is running with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as his vice presidential candidate, specifically mentioned about the billions of pesos the country received from foreign assistance in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda which battered the country in 2013.

“Now, I will ask Roxas, where did the Yolanda funds go?” Duterte said, drawing wild applause from the crowd which filled the LNU to the rafters.

He said his rival from the administration party, Mar Roxas, must have an explanation to the public as to where funds go.

Roxas was Interior of Local Government secretary when the calamity struck and killed thousands of Filipinos and left countless more homeless.

Duterte visited Pangasinan where he held a public rally and led a caravan from Lingayen to Dagupan City.

A huge throng of people lined up the streets just to have a glimpse of the charismatic leader from the South. Some students also went out of their classrooms while workers stopped to wave at Duterte as his vehicle passed by them.

Earlier, Duterte paid a courtesy call on Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. at the Provincial Capitol.