President of the Philippines

The President of the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Pangulo ng Republika ng Pilipinas) is the head of state and head of government of the Philippines. The President leads the executive branch of the Philippine government and is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Filipinos refer to their President as Pangulo or Presidente and the President serves for one, fixed, six-year term without possibility of re-election.

Local nomenclature

In Filipino, one of the two official languages of the Philippines, the President is referred to as Pangulo. In the other major languages of the Philippines such as the Visayan languages, Presidente is more common when Filipinos are not actually code-switching with the English word.

History

Early republics

Bonifacio's Tagalog Republic

Philippines

Coordinates: 13°N 122°E / 13°N 122°E / 13; 122

The Philippines (ⁱ/ˈfɪlᵻpiːnz/; Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia situated in the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of about 7,500 islands that are categorized broadly under three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The capital city of the Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City; both are part of Metro Manila.

To the north of the Philippines across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan; Vietnam sits west across the South China Sea; southwest lies Malaysia in the island of Borneo across the Sulu Sea, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia; while to the east it is bounded by the Philippine Sea and the island-nation of Palau. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the world's greatest biodiversity. At approximately 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 sq mi), the Philippines is the 72nd-largest country in the world.

Rodrigo Duterte

Rodrigo "Rody" Roa Duterte (born March 28, 1945), nicknamed Digong, is a Filipino lawyer and politician of Visayan descent. Duterte is among the longest-serving mayors in the Philippines. He has been mayor of Davao City, a highly urbanized city on Mindanao island, for 7 terms, totalling more than 22 years. He has also served as vice-mayor and congressman in the city.

On November 21, 2015, Duterte declared his candidacy for President of the Philippines in the upcoming 2016 election after a period of banter.

Early life

Duterte was born on March 28, 1945 in Maasin, Leyte in the Philippine Commonwealth to Vicente G. Duterte, who served as Governor of (the then-undivided) Davao and Soledad Roa, a native of Cabadbaran, Agusan who was a school teacher and a civic leader. Duterte's father Vicente, prior to being provincial governor of Davao, was once a mayor of Danao in Cebu. Rodrigo's cousin Ronald, on the other hand, served as Cebu City mayor from 1983 to 1986. Ronald’s father, Ramon Duterte, also held the position from 1957 to 1959. The Dutertes consider the political families of the Durano and the Almendras clan as relatives.

Benigno Aquino III

Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Cojuangco Aquino III (born February 8, 1960) is a Filipino politician who has been the 15th President of the Philippines since June 2010.

Aquino is a fourth-generation politician and is currently the chairman of the Liberal Party. Born in Manila, Aquino finished his Bachelor of Arts (major in economics) from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to term limits, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.

On September 9, 2009, Aquino officially announced he would be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election and on June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, Aquino was sworn into office as the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.