Quotes

Sometimes my mouth can get the better of me.

[on Donald Trump] He is a bigot and I am not.

[from a campaign speech] Forget the laws on human rights. If I make it to the presidential palace, I will do just what I did as a mayor. You drug-pushers, holdup men and do-nothings: you better go out because I'll kill you. I'll dump all of you in Manila Bay and fatten the fishes.

[warning to Filipino drug dealers] I will hound you to the very gates of hell.

I will just say to my countrymen that do not despair. Kaya natin ito Covid na ito. Maliit na bagay ito sa buhay natin. Marami tayong dinaanan...mas grabe, mas mahirap, mas magluluha kayo (We can handle this Covid. This is but a small thing in our lives. We have gone through more intense, more difficult, more tear-jerking experiences).

We will make the next few years the Golden Age of Infrastructure in the Philippines to enhance our mobility and connectivity and thereby spur equitable growth and development in the country. In other words, we are going to 'Build, Build and Build'.

If we cannot control the flow of drugs, then I will consider my presidency a total failure. So, I do not want that to happen. Do not do it... You start to f*** with drugs, you destroy my country. And if you destroy my country, I will kill you. Sigurado 'yan (That's for sure). Stop it, lalo na kayong malalaki (especially those who are involved in big-time operations). Wala akong pakialam diyan sa (I don't care about) human rights. I'm trying to save the youth.

The West Philippine Sea is ours. There [are] no ifs and buts. It is ours... we have been acting along that legal truth and line. But we have to temper it with the times and the realities that we face today.