MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday started his first State of the Nation Address by saying that his administration will not dwell on the mistakes committed by previous administrations.

Duterte said the nation cannot move forward if will continue to dwell on the past and allow it to '' pull us back."

''Fingerpointing is not the way, that is why I will not waste precious time dwelling on the sins of the past or blaming or those perceived to be responsible for the mess that we are in and suffering from,'' the President said.

Duterte said he would rather take lessons from past mistakes.

"It is the present we are concerned with and the future that we should be prepared for," he said.

Duterte, nonetheless, guaranteed that former officials who violated laws shall not escape prosecution.

"Let me say clearly that those who betrayed the people's trust shall not go unpunished and they will have their day in court," he said.

Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, had made it his habit to criticize his predecessor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the sorry state of bureaucracy when he assumed power in 2010.

Aquino has often called Arroyo's 9-year leadership as a lost decade.

But Aquino, while going after perceived political enemies, had been criticized for sparing his allies in his fight against corruption.

Duterte won the election on a platform of ending crime and corruption. He has also branded himself as a man of action, vowing to solve complex problems such as Manila's traffic and the country's problem in record time.