Getting what Du30 means: a sampler

"The human rights (defenders) say I kill. If I say, OK, I'll stop, the drug war will not. When harvest time comes, there will be more of them who will die. Then I will kill you among them because you let them multiply."-- President Duterte

THE president just made another statement that has set off a firestorm: a threat against those who have criticized the increasing death toll in the war on illegal drugs (over 4,800, or about 30 deaths a day since five months ago when he assumed office, according to one count).

But wait. What he says may not always tell what he really means. Though the words are plain enough, hasn't he said repeatedly not to take him literally in effect not to believe him at once?

We've been warned, he tends to exaggerate or joke, to draw laughter or to shock and provoke. Look for the incongruous or the jarring: compare the statement with reality, what he says he'll do and what law, morality or plain good sense says he must not.

Let's take his latest "shocker" as an example on how incensed parties may respond. They may heed suggestions from the president himself and remember denials, clarifications and apologies that followed some of his controversial declarations.

-- Wait for an explanation from the president or his communications team.

-- Interpret tentatively, one that extracts a a meaning consistent with his oath of office and the laws;

-- Disregard the impossible or improbable. No president will kill his own people for criticizing his acts. Take out the illogical: dissent is no crime and doesn't "multiply" drug dealers and traffickers.

-- Seeing the outrageousness of it all, critics may not react harshly anymore and just wait for overt acts that will, as Chinese media put it, "walk his talk."

BUT then maybe critics think that might be too late and that silence might be confused with accep t an ce.