We have done a lot of traveling with President Duterte in the past few weeks. Even that sounds like an understatement. In what seemed like a blur, we went to Laos, Vietnam, Brunei, China, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia. If schedules hold, we should be on that epic journey to Peru for the Apec summit meeting. That will be a journey of 10,000 miles and many hours of discomfort sitting in an airplane. That translates into a lot of face time with the President, whether we want it or not.
We have all had our fill of being up close and personal with the President. As most people know by now, he works on a different body clock from the rest of us. He has had many press conferences way after midnight—a practice that left many reporters covering him bedraggled.
When he was mayor of Davao City, he used to do night patrols, surprising policemen literally sleeping on the job. He often cruised around his sleeping city alone, on a motorbike or in his taxi. The habit dies hard. From those nocturnal inspections, the President accumulated a lot of stories. Those stories he regurgitates before his staff during our downtimes. These are stories that sometimes find their way into the impromptu speeches he prefers delivering. His experiences as mayor are vivid in his mind. After all, the man spent two good decades of his life transforming a chaotic and violent city into a peaceful and progressive one.
On long flights, he seems to be reliving the nocturnal inspections he loved doing when he was mayor. He has the habit of standing on the aisle while the rest of us are trying to catch some sleep in order to keep up with his pace. He sometimes asks a Cabinet member to give him a briefing on specific issues. At other times, he cracks jokes or teases his staff or tells stories. He is one hell of a raconteur. There is never a dull moment with Mr. Duterte, as one could imagine.
Like his night watchmen in Davao when he was mayor, we have to be on our toes, ready to answer whatever questions he might ask. This man has a lively mind. He is quick to grasp the issues, digest the information and arrive at a reasoned conclusion. Members of his Cabinet who have policy options to advance appreciate the discussions on the aisle. These are rare opportunities to hold the President’s attention and, perhaps, win his approval for their advocacies.
When enough Cabinet members are in the plane, the aisle conversations become de facto policy meetings. Many significant decisions were arrived at 35,000 feet up in the air. Sometimes it seems we are about to break a record here for policymaking while aloft. The Duterte presidency is young, but the time we have so far spent with him on his trips allowed us many insights into how he works and how he thinks. Those insights deepen every time we board a plane with him.
To begin with, the President has the memory of an elephant. He remembers important details. He has extensive knowledge of history that he references when dealing with current issues. He can quote passages from books from memory. He can deliver a long lecture on something that happened a century ago, capturing all the color and subtleties of events. He is a man who has read much, and it readily shows.
He also keeps track of ongoing public conversation. He wondered why some of the things he emphasized during a recent press conference were not carried in the media. He fretted that the media seemed more interested in the trivial and less in the things he holds important.
Sometimes, during press briefings, he leaves sentences dangling. Actually, he completes those sentences with a facial expression or a body gesture. The nonverbal portions of what the President says are often dropped from the coverage. Understandably, reporters hesitate translating a gesture into words.
Those of us who have spent so much time up close and personal with him learn eventually to understand a squint in the President’s eye, a smirk, or a smile, the manner he purses his lips. That is important.