Duterte jokes about canceling Asean meet

President Duterte took a break from formality during a press conference Saturday night, joking about his intention to cancel the Philippines’ hosting of another Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in November and how women wanted to take photos with him.

“Son of a… if summits are like this, the one scheduled in November would be

canceled,” Duterte remarked upon entering the venue of the press conference at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City.

“That’s true. It’s the same. Nothing has changed… we can do away with the one scheduled in November,” he added.

Duterte then told acting Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo in jest not to hold summits in the Philippines anymore.

The ASEAN meet in November will include the regional bloc’s dialogue partners like the United States.

Duterte, who is used to delivering candid, freewheeling and often profanity-laced speeches, stuck to his prepared statements in all his engagements as ASEAN chair last Saturday.

The press conference, which was attended by local and foreign journalists, was his only opportunity to deliver spontaneous remarks that day.

When reminded by Communications Secretary Martin Andanar that the press conference would end in five minutes because he had a gala dinner to attend, Duterte said: “They can just go ahead and start the dinner.”

“We will not arrive there on time anyway. If we are late, just be late. Anyway, we are already late. It’s the idiom in my dialect is: You’re already wet, better take a bath,” he added.

Duterte then asked the members of media if they were invited to the state banquet. When journalists answered in the negative, he told his aide Christopher Go: “How about them? I told you not to hold summits if you have no money.”

“You (media) are invited. We can add tables and chairs there… dinner is (at) 8:45 (p.m.). But I’ll give you until one o’clock in the morning,” he added.

While Duterte was in a jolly mood during the press conference, he could not help but take a swipe at ABS-CBN, which, he claimed, wanted to settle things with him.

Duterte has accused the television network of biased reporting and of not airing his political advertisement even if it had accepted his payment for airtime.

“That’s why when you antagonize somebody and it is happening to me and they come pleading for talks, can we settle this? I said, what’s the point? I’m all wet so I might just as well take a bath. That’s how I will answer them,” he said.

“There are a lot of people saying that now, let’s talk, let’s just forget about this thing and let us… And even ABS-CBN. Yeah.”

Duterte then refuted claims that he does not owe anything to ABS-CBN.

“I don’t know if it’s true but somebody posted in the internet that I do not owe ABS (CBN) anything because (of) what they did with my money,” the President said.

“But they forgot that their Davao City station gave us a letter with a corresponding check and saying that it is a reimbursement because you have a demandable and it’s a… check,” he added.

Duterte did not elaborate on the check, saying he would just discuss the matter next time. He even vowed to provide the media a copy of the check.

The President ended his press conference by giving female journalists an opportunity to take photos with him.

“I am not trying to be a showoff but I’ve noticed that whenever after every conference, whatever it is, a lot of, mostly women, who want to have a picture with me. So women, come up and we’ll have the pictures,” Duterte said.