CHIEF among the traits of Rodrigo Duterte that won him the presidential election in May was his forthright manner of speaking. Yet the meaning of his aggressive, expletive-laden talk was often obscure. What would he really do as president? Filipinos are starting to get a glimpse.

In one respect—his promise to give the police a free hand to kill criminals, notably suspected drug-traffickers—the man sometimes nicknamed “Duterte Harry” seems to have been taken at his word even before his inauguration on June 30th. In the first six weeks after the election, the police shot dead suspected drug-traffickers at the rate of nine a week, over four times the rate in the preceding four months. A day after being sworn in, Mr Duterte reassured officers paraded in front of him that they had the right to kill suspects who threatened their lives by resisting arrest. “Do your duty—and if, in the process, you kill 1,000 persons because you were doing your duty—I will protect you,” he said. He later took aim at their bosses, accusing five serving and former police generals of being “protectors” of drugs gangs. (They deny the claim.)

In other matters, though, Mr Duterte appears to be more restrained. He and his newly appointed ministers said they would honour the previous government’s peace accord with Muslim insurgents in the southern island of Mindanao, Mr Duterte’s political bailiwick. Until recently he had been vague about his intentions in the region, where the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front has agreed to make peace in return for new arrangements for autonomy in predominantly Muslim areas. But in his inauguration speech Mr Duterte declared: “My administration is committed to implement all signed peace agreements.”

A pressing question is the country’s relations with China and America—particularly the dispute with China over its extensive claims to the islands, reefs and atolls in the South China Sea. On July 12th the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague is due to issue a much-anticipated opinion on a complaint against China brought by the former Philippine president, Benigno Aquino. At one point in his election campaign Mr Duterte said he would ride a jet-ski to plant the Philippine flag in areas that it claims as its own, and was ready to die doing it. At other times he said only direct negotiation with China could settle the confrontation.

In recent days the government has indicated that it prefers the second approach. The foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, told a press conference that he hoped China would negotiate after the PCA ruling: “I’m hopeful that China would do this, notwithstanding the fact that it has said that it will not respect the decision of the arbitral tribunal,” he said.