Duterte can take nothing for granted

President Rodrigo Duterte is not best known for fighting drug sellers, but for murdering them. (File photos)

Ever since Rodrigo Duterte became the 16th President of the Republic of Philippines, the world has watched and read about his unorthodox way of handling situations, at times going above and beyond what one might expect from a head of state.

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to hear President Duterte while I was on a business trip to Manila and lucky (or unluckily) I had the opportunity to hear him twice in a matter of two days.

Having heard and read about his abrasive style of speaking, I had braced myself for any and every eventuality.

The first shock came was his delayed arrival.

On the first day, the president arrived more than two hours after the scheduled time, and on the second day he arrived a little less than two hours late.

As we waited, nobody was allowed to walk in or out of the room.

Curious as to why a head of state be so late even when the roads are cleared for his motorcade, the answer from my Philippine journalist friends was that this average of a two-hour wait was actually an improvement.

Usually the president is five or six hours late for his appointments, they said.

If the delay was not in itself enough to agitate the audience, then we had to listen to him speak.

Although he had a few pages of pre-prepared speech in front of him, he veered off to talk about other issues he thought important.

Although accepting that this meeting was "an important one because I know from the number of pages that my speechwriter writes for me to speak, and this one for sure is a big event as there are many pages for me to read", he went off track to talk about issues that he personally wanted to talk about and vent his frustration over.

The 72-year old Mr Duterte on Oct 19 slandered the western hemisphere at an event hosted by the Philippines to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of Asean.

He went off-track to talk about how he has been tackling the drug and terrorism problems in his country.

In fact, the audience -- which included many senior dignitaries from all across the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations -- were there to hear what Philippines had to say about its role in the grouping and what the bloc is going to look like in the years and decades to come.

Asean, which was supposed to be a force to balance the rise of China and the dominance of the United States in the region, not to mention the rise of India, has been in shambles ever since China has played the age old game of divide and rule.

The grouping celebrates its 50th anniversary of the so called "Bangkok Declaration" that formed the grouping in 1967, yet the 10-member Asean has seen a major division in the ranks and files as China uses its economic might to divide the member nations, including the Philippines.

Unlike Mr Duterte, his predecessor, Benigo Aquino, was very vocal when it came to dealing with China and its various claims to South China Sea.

During his speech, Mr Duterte praised countries such as China for providing the hardware to help tackle terrorism, among other issues, while telling the western world that if they are so opposed to the heavy-handed approach of his administration then they should come and tackle it themselves.

The Philippines, he said, would be more than willing to allow anyone to come and try to do so, but if these western countries do not have the courage to send troops then they should not sit on the sidelines and criticise his approach.

Mr Duterte has gone to the extremes of using foul language against countries' leaders.

Last year called then-US president Barack Obama a "son of a whore" following Mr Obama's open criticism of the so-called war on drugs that has so far killed nearly 4,000 people.

Mr Duterte himself has admitted in a statement last month that his Foreign Ministry has advised him to tone down his language and avoid cursing, but as they say it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks.

Although his term is set to run until 2022, Mr Duterte needs to remember that the Philippines has had many political upheavals and once his popularity fades (which is typically the case with any presidency after a few years), the population is not going to tolerate a head of the state who takes his public for granted.