Just call him President Mayor Duterte?

It may sound like a demotion from his current position but President Rodrigo Duterte still wants to be called “mayor” – his title for more than 20 years.

This means he’ll likely want to be formally addressed as “President Mayor” or “Mayor President,” say people who are close to him. Former president Joseph Estrada, who is now Manila mayor, is known to be addressed as “President Mayor” in city hall.

Duterte’s attachment to the “mayor” tag was evident during his interview with a foreign journalist just hours after it became clear that he would be the Philippines’ 16th president.

On the evening of May 9, a correspondent of an international television network addressed him as “Mr President” but Duterte immediately corrected him and said, “Mayor lang po (Just mayor, please). Mayor!’

When another journalist in the interview room asked if he preferred to be called “Mayor” rather than “President”, Duterte said, “Mayor. Call me Mayor. Let the word spread. Because I’d been mayor for 23 years. That’s my legacy and I want to take the name. I’d like to take the name, mayor.”

Calling Duterte just “mayor,” however, would be tricky not only because he now occupies the highest position in the land, but also because his daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, is the new Davao City mayor.

After Duterte finished serving his third consecutive term in 2007, Sara ran and won as Davao City mayor, while her father was her vice mayor. Even during that period, people still called Duterte “Mayor Rody.”

His children also called him “mayor” in public but in private, they refer to him as “papa.”

His close friends call him Rody or Digong (pronounced as Di-gong not Dee-gong). Duterte often smiles when he hears people mispronouncing his nickname. – Rappler.com