Rodrigo Duterte leads polls ahead of Philippines election

Rodrigo Duterte, the hardline mayor of Davao City, leads the polls heading into Monday's presidential election in the Philippines, with the son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos looking set to take the vice-president position in the southeast Asian nation.

Mr Duterte is a divisive figure in the Philippines for a campaign in which he promised to deal with crime by killing criminals. He also joked of how he wishes he could have been first in line in the deadly gang rape of an Australian missionary and he called Pope Francis "a son of a bitch".

This is the Philippines’ fifth election since the “People Power” revolution that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. “Bongbong”, as Ferdinand Marcos jnr is known, has been leading most opinion polls.

Outgoing president Benigno Aquino fears that the vote will be split between his favoured successor, interior secretary Mar Roxas, and Mr Duterte's closest rival, senator Grace Poe.

He has called on Mr Roxas and Ms Poe to unite against the candidate known as "the Punisher", a self-confessed killer of criminals who has been compared with US presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Second term

Mr Aquino, the son of ex-president Corazon Aquino and assassinated opposition leader Benigno Aquino, has overseen six years of stability that has seen the economy grow by an average of 6 per cent a year, but he cannot sit for a second term because of rules imposed by his mother after the Marcos era.

Half a million people turned out for Mr Duterte’s last rally, in which he accused the president of trying to divide the country with an act of desperation. “Do not create an environment of fear and hate,” he told the rally in comments aimed at both Mr Aquino and Mr Roxas. “They are promoting hatred and division among the people.”

Mr Duterte is proving popular among ordinary people as he does not represent one of the powerful families that have ruled the Philippines for decades and his promises to combat poverty and stamp out crime have chimed with the people in this country of 98 million.

The best way to deal with criminals is “kill them all”, according to Mr Duterte, who is beloved for bringing law and order to Davao during his seven terms totalling 22 years as mayor there.

Abandoned infant

Mr Roxas is a former minister and the grandson of a former president. Last week Grace Poe, a senator abandoned as an infant on the steps of a cathedral and adopted by the Philippines' two biggest movie stars, Fernando Poe Jr and Susan Roces, turned down an offer from Mr Aquino for an alliance, which she read as a call for her to withdraw and to back Mr Roxas.

“You must be given the free choice to select your leader and respect it and not be manipulated by a few people,” she told her supporters.

The elections will vote in a new president and vice-president, 12 senators and thousands of local officials.

Other candidates include outgoing vice-president Jejomar Binay, the former mayor of Manila's financial district, Makati, and Miriam Defensor Santiago, a judge and senator. Demographics are working in Bongbong's favour – more than half of those eligible to vote were not born when Marcos was overthrown. –(Additional reporting by Reuters)