“He was brilliant and superb.”
That’s how foreign affairs secretary Perfecto Yasay described President Rodrigo Duterte’s debut performance in the international political scene during the recently concluded ASEAN summit in Laos and state visit to Jakarta, Indonesia.
“On a scale of 1 to 10… I give him a high score of 8.5,” Yasay was quoted in a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Perhaps Yasay’s reservation of 1.5 points is due to the fact that Duterte cursed in public when he was asked about the possibility of U.S. President Barack Obama asking about the human rights violations in the ongoing war against drugs.
Or maybe the imperfect score is because Duterte also managed to call United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon as “tarantado” (a rowdy fool) in front of the Filipino community in Indonesia.
“They were impressed with his performance, what he said, his insights and diplomatic decorum, and his ability to understand what was happening around the world,” Yasay said in the same Inquirer report, referring to the ASEAN delegation.
“[Pres. Duterte was] able to express and articulate the concerns we wanted to raise, particularly our efforts in the fight against illegal drugs and the steps we have taken consistent with the Constitution, rule of law and upholding human rights,” Yasay continues.
Well, this isn’t really a surprise, since Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar also claimed that Duterte is “a rockstar” in the international scene.
“President Duterte is a rockstar not only in our country, but also in other countries like Laos and Japan,” Andanar said in an earlier Inquirer report. “Other foreign ministers and delegates have scrambled to get a selfie with our President.”
