OUTGOING Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año expressed confidence that the incoming government will be ably guided in the fulfillment of the DILG’s “supervisory mandate” over local government units (LGUs) and in maintaining peace and order.

Año also congratulated former senator Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara DuterteCarpio on their proclamation as president and vice president, as well as former Mandaluyong City mayor Benhur Abalos for his designation as the next DILG chief.

“With President Marcos Jr. at the helm and the able leadership of incoming DILG secretary Benhur Abalos, we are confident that the DILG will be ably guided in the fulfillment of its supervisory mandate over local government units and in maintaining peace and order in our country,” he said.

“The DILG vows to work with the incoming administration in the attainment of its vision for the country and in their governance agenda of unity toward genuine progress and development,” he added. “We commit to continue to uphold the DILG’s brand of service of being matino, mahusay at maaasahan (decent, competent and reliable) as we decisively execute the incoming administration’s directives for local governments and the peace and order and security sectors,” Año said.

Año also urged the public to rise again toward a disciplined and wealthy Philippines.

On the other hand, the alleged left-wing rights group Karapatan asserted that human rights violations were expected to prevail under the Marcos-Duterte tandem.

“With the proclamation of Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte as president and vice president, respectively, we can only expect the worst of times for the state of human rights, justice and accountability in the Philippines, as well as the best of times for the struggle and resistance against tyranny, oppression and genuine democracy,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in a statement.

“We will not relent in exacting accountability, in pursuing justice for victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, in pushing for the release of political prisoners, among many other agenda for people’s rights,” she added.

Marcos, the standard-bearer of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, was proclaimed the 17th president of the Philippines by a joint session of Congress on Wednesday following a landslide election triumph 36 years after his dictator father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., was ousted in a fourday EDSA People Power Revolution from Feb. 22 to 25, 1986.

Marcos received 31,002,650 votes from the May 9 polls, surpassing the record 16 million votes that President Rodrigo Duterte got in 2016.