DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Jess Saplala was sitting in a bar late one night in Davao City listening to a man singing a Frank Sinatra ballad, when he noticed that the crooner was none other than the town’s mayor, Rodrigo Duterte.
After the performance, the mayor put on a baseball cap, pushed a .38 pistol into his belt and got into the driver’s seat of a taxi. “I have to make my rounds,” Saplala recalled him saying.
It was just another day at the office for an unconventional mayor who is now poised to become president of the Philippines.
With more than 92 percent of the votes counted on Tuesday, Duterte, 71, appeared to have an insurmountable lead in the presidential race. Unofficial returns showed him with nearly 39 percent of the vote, far ahead of his closest competitor in a system that requires only a plurality to win. Official results may not be known for days, if not weeks.
Early on Tuesday, Duterte visited his mother’s grave and cried, according to video posted on YouTube.
With an outrageous style that has been likened to Donald Trump’s, Duterte has tapped into widespread discontent over unemployment, crime and corruption. His strong personality — and résumé as a prosecutor and mayor who stamped out crime in a violent area of the country — has endeared him to those who are tired of the more measured tones of President Benigno S. Aquino III.
But his success comes with a dark side: There were more than 1,000 extrajudicial killings in Davao City during his 20 years as mayor. On the campaign trail, Duterte boasted of personally killing criminals who he said were resisting arrest.
If elected, he said recently, he would aggressively pursue those who break the law, vowing to kill criminals himself and grant himself a presidential pardon.
He also wants to take a more conciliatory approach toward China over the contested South China Sea, and has questioned the reliability of the Philippines’ alliance with the United States.
That approach would be a huge shift from the policies of Aquino, and could set back efforts by Washington to marshal its allies to counter Chinese activity in the strategically important area. The Philippines recently agreed to host a more robust U.S. military presence after several decades of tense relations.
Duterte has gained international notoriety for his crude jokes about rape and insults of Pope Francis — virtually unheard-of for an official in this predominantly Roman Catholic country. And some critics worry that his brand of populism is reminiscent of the Marcos dictatorship.
Yet people who know him say the caricature of a crass, womanizing vigilante is an oversimplification. They describe Duterte as a shrewd politician and technocratic mayor who supports services that help people in need.
At the Public Safety and Security Command Center that Duterte built in Davao City, Tyrone Gutierrez dismissed the suggestion that people are being killed by vigilantes. He supervises an operations center filled with screens showing live feeds from closed-circuit cameras that blanket the city.
Next door, Cynthia Perez, an emergency medical technician, showed off a fleet of new ambulances and fire trucks dispatched via a 911 call center. The emergency vehicles include a specially equipped children’s ambulance and a large vehicle that serves as a rolling hospital. The ambulances and medical services are provided free to patients.
The fleet might be unremarkable in many cities, but in the Philippines, where government services are often minimal, it is a point of pride.
“The mayor comes in at 11 or 12 at night, in the wee hours, to inspect our operations,” Perez said. “He’s very nice and approachable. He’s always joking around with us.”
