Poe concedes defeat to Duterte in Philippine presidential race

Poe conceded defeat to Duterte after unofficial results showed the tough-talking mayor was winning a large chunk of the votes.
 
"I congratulate Mayor Duterte," Poe told reporters during a press conference in Manila, adding, he "is clearly the leading candidate in the ongoing count and has been chosen by a plurality of our people".
 
"I'm giving way, I respect the results," she added, noting, "Duterte has a mandate. Let's give him a chance."
 
This came as Poe, a popular senator who had led in opinion polls in earlier stages of campaigning, trailed Duterte by a substantial margin during the vote count by midnight (0400 GMT).  
 
In unofficial results from 79 percent of voting precincts, Duterte has 14 million votes, followed by Manuel Roxas, with nearly 8.4 million and Poe third with 7.9 million. 
 
On Monday, General election polls opened in the Philippines amid tight security measures over fear of violence. Over 100,000 police officers were deployed to guard Monday’s polls set to determine the country’s new president, vice-president, senators and some 18,000 local officials.
 
Seven people were also killed just two hours after polls opened in the town of Rosario, south of the capital city Manila.
 
Duterte, 71, had concentrated his campaign on law and order, while vowing to butcher criminals after the election as he reportedly did during his mayoral term in Davao in southern Philippines. 
 
Pre-election polls had given him a 10-point lead over his rivals, while recent surveys have landed him with 33 percent of the ballots in a system where candidates do not require a majority to win but the most votes.   
 
Duterte, who has served as the Davao mayor for over 22 years, has promised to wipe out crime within the first six months of his presidency, dismissing allegations of resorting to myriads of execution to keep order.
 
Nicknamed “the Punisher,” Duterte has been blasted by rights groups for permitting vigilantes to murder hundreds of suspected criminals on his turf.
 
He was elected as mayor for seven times in Davao, where he is known for cruising around on his motorbike. Duterte has reportedly raised the city’s standing as a shelter for criminals to one of the Philippines’ safest cities since he was first elected in 1994.
 
Human Rights Watch released a report in 2009, calling for the Philippines to disband its highly organized vigilante gangs, which it claimed had direct ties of the government and police.
 
The gang’s victims, mostly petty criminals and street kids, were usually targeted by motorcycle riding men wearing baseball caps, noted the report.
 
Despite denying links to the death squads, Duterte has warned that criminals were a “legitimate target of assassination.” 
 
The controversial figure has been described by the media as the Asian country's Donald Trump.