One thing that’s undermining the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is the communication style used by Duterte in his verbal statements. The numerous ill-thought-out remarks he makes have so far been a gold mine of ammo the Opposition gleefully use to bolster their nonetheless intellectually-bankrupt rhetoric.
Indeed, the single biggest thing Duterte could do to improve his administration is to starve the Opposition chatter of “viral” topics by cutting their supply of bullets for their cheap shots at the source. To do that, the president does not have to stop talking. He just needs to use the right language.
Because English demands a bit more thinking of its speakers, channeling one’s thoughts through this language reduces the chances of Filipino cultural nuances that could serve as fodder for the Yellowtards’ slanted “interpretation” faculties making their way past one’s mouth.
Duterte’s gaffes, in fact, were mainly spoken in Tagalog. That leaves a lot of room, given that Tagalog is a hopelessly imprecise dialect, for malicious liberties to be taken in “reporting” it considering the dubious character of many Filipino “journalists”.
So, yes, the solution is really obvious. Duterte should make exclusive use of the language of winners and ditch the minefield that is the Tagalog dialect when making official statements.