Duterte defends 8-point economic agenda 

Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte defended his eight-point economic agenda from criticisms that it's similar to what the Aquino administration advanced and lacks socialism, which he pronounced during the campaign.

Duterte, who has led a partial and unofficial count by a wide margin, has yet to be officially proclaimed winner in the elections as Congress has not yet convened to officially canvass the votes cast. 

All winners in the last elections will be sworn in and take office at noon of June 30.

Asked to comment on critics who said his planned economic agenda lacks the socialism he promised during the campaign, Duterte shot back, "What do you want? The color of communism?"

"Ito ang problema ng hindi nakakaalam of the grasp of how it is. This is my agenda, and the Congress right now, or some of them said, that they would support my economic agenda. Fine," he told GMA News anchor Jessica Soho in an exclusive interview in Davao City on Tuesday.

"But when nitty-gritty comes, and is fed in the legislative machine, would there be a (inaudible) somewhere. I can only propose, but yung nitty-gritty ko sa law will come and when I am ready and if I have a good reading kung sino ang nakaupo diyan," he added.

Duterte stressed, "This is something against the oligarchs. This is one of the things that I would want to do."

He said that he is not going to control Congress but, "I am praying I'll have a sympathetic Congress at the very least."

"Those are borderlines of what I intend to do when we go to the entrails. I will go to the nitty-grityy outcomes of whether or not it will find us (inaudible). This is democracy. Eh kung authoritarian to diretso, ito ang maganda para sa tao, well I have to submit to," Duterte noted.

On May 12, Duterte's designated finance secretary Carlos Dominguez announced the incoming administration's economic agenda which will continue outgoing President Benigno Aquino III's macroeconomic policies that focused on higher infrastructure spending and fiscal efficiency. — APG, GMA News