Philippines' Duterte plans parliamentary system - spokesman

Reuters
Rodrigo Duterte, seven-term mayor of Davao city, who has built a reputation for fighting crime in the insurgency-plagued southern Philippines, gestures during an interview with Reuters in Manila, Philippines, in this file picture taken December 10, 2015. REUTERS/Czar Dancel/File Photo

DAVAO, Philippines (Reuters) - Maverick Philippine mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who looks set to become the next president, is planning to overhaul the constitution and will propose a shift to a parliamentary system of government, his spokesman said on Tuesday. "That will require a wide national consensus beginning with asking congress to call for a constitutional convention," Peter Lavina told a media briefing. "There will be major rewriting of our constitution." A rolling ballot count by an election commission-accredited watchdog on Tuesday showed Duterte had almost 39 percent of votes cast. He was more than 5 million votes ahead of his nearest rival with 90 percent of votes counted. (Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Nick Macfie)