Entertaining speech

As President Rodrigo Duterte announced his "separation" from the United States and sought to
strengthen ties with China, he said he will also talk to Russia's Vladimir Putin.

"I've realigned myself in your [China] ideological flow and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to
(President Vladimir) Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world - China, Philippines
and Russia. It's the only way," he said.

Like what the???

"America has lost now," Duterte told Chinese and Philippine business people at a forum in the Great Hall
of the People, attended by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

"With that, in this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States,"
Duterte said to applause. "I have separated from them. So I will be dependent on you for all time. But do
not worry. We will also help as you help us."

China has pulled out all the stops to welcome Duterte, including a marching band complete with batton-
twirling band master at his official welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People, which
most leaders do not get.

There, one can see a completely different Duterte: He is unrecognizably statesmanlike, impressively
coherent, and highly respectful towards China (once in power, he acted broadly in a similar vein during
numerous officials trips to China). The soon-to-be-president brazenly echoed his quid pro quo: “What I
need from China is help to develop my country.” In exchange, he would downgrade security cooperation
with the United States and, crucially, disregard the Philippines’ landmark arbitration award against China
in the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, during his first major overseas visits, beginning with China, Duterte was even more
blunt about his take on the Philippine-U.S. alliance: “I want, maybe in the next two years, my country
free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them [Americans] out.”

MANILA—On a recent afternoon, Antonio Carpio, a retired Filipino supreme court judge, stood before a
few hundred students at Manila’s prestigious De La Salle University, charts and maps displayed on
screens either side of him, and denounced both China and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for
undermining the national interest of the Philippines.

“The Chinese aggression is the gravest external threat to the Philippines since World War II,” Carpio told
the students. Looking toward the next presidential election, Carpio said, “We have to ask every
candidate, ‘Are you with us in protecting Filipino territorial rights?’”

Duterte himself has been called “Duterte Duwag”—“Duterte Coward” in Tagalog—on social media
because of what Carpio says is his “submission to the will of China.” The local press is full of commentary
using the word vassal to describe the way they see the Philippines in its relationship to China under
Duterte. Polls show that 87 percent of Filipinos favor a stronger defense of Philippine maritime territory.

But here’s the paradox: Despite all of that, despite the awkward fact that Duterte is the only elected
president on the planet being investigated for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal
Court in The Hague, despite his insulting language about women, his attacks on the press, and his capo
di tutti capi style of rule, despite his use of the country’s judicial machinery to prosecute political rivals,
he enjoys the highest approval ratings of any Filipino leader at this stage of their term in office in recent
history. In many ways, Duterte’s political success illustrates many of the reasons strongman and populist
leaders the world over, including Donald Trump, are able to bypass crises or challenges that would
torpedo a more typical politician.

“This is a man who admits to killing,” Marites Vitug, a prominent journalist and author, told me, a
mixture of wonderment and resignation in her voice, “and yet he’s popular.”

Mahar Mangahas, the founder and head of Social Weather Stations, or SWS, a leading independent
polling company in the Philippines, echoed that sentiment. “People don’t like his drug killings. They
don’t like his foul mouth. They don’t follow him when he hates the United States and likes China. It’s
very curious. Why are the views of him so favorable when he’s such an ugly person?”

Duterte himself probably leans toward China for a couple of reasons. Like other regional strongmen, he
appreciates that Beijing, unlike Washington (even under Trump), doesn’t criticize him for human rights
violations such as the drug-war killings. China is also the emerging Asian powerhouse, so Duterte’s
argument—that the Philippines has little capacity to go to war with it over disputed territories and
should instead seek a friendly relationship—has a logic, and appears to persuade many in the country.

Yet a deeper reason for Duterte’s popularity is simply the force of his personality. As the sociologist and
author Walden Bello, a prominent Duterte critic, put it to me, “The charismatic figure can get away with
anything, even murder.” Bello was speaking of the thousands of drug-war dead, about which Duterte
has been spectacularly unrepentant. “My God,” the president has been quoted as saying, “I hate drugs,
and I have to kill people because I hate drugs.”

Read: Is this the end of Duterte's drug war?

“People are very aware of the killings, but at the same time, they feel that Duterte’s eliminated the
criminals,” Bello says, speaking specifically of a poor, teeming Manila neighborhood near where he lives,
a place that has seen many extrajudicial killings. “The thugs, the street-corner boys, are no longer there.
Women can walk the streets safely. I don’t know if their lives are actually better than before, but the
perception is that they are. They’re pro-Duterte because they feel he’s cleaned up the place.”

Relaxation Techniques that Haven’t Worked For Me

1. Consider your entertainment topic from different points of view.

2. Choose for an unusual or strange angle of approach.
3. Wonder what the reason is for some habits or daily grind.
4. Give a normal issue, subject or topic a personal, dramatic twist.
5. List xx ways to …
6. Perform dialogues and metaphores.
7. Tell a story about a personal experience, interrelate the humorous anecdote in the main theme.
8. Give mocking comments on perfectly ordinary things, persons, places, values or thoughts.
9. Ridiculize large organizations or institutions. But do not offend.
10. Laugh at and ridiculize professional jargon or dialogues.
11. Find similarities between opposing subjects. That can be a very humorous and entertaining for
your audience.
12. Ask: WhatIf and press the possibilities till it becomes ridiculous, funny and amusing.