Will Duterte mention fishing deal with China in State of Nation address? No one knows for sure

The Philippines president has been unpredictable in previous year’s speeches. This year, he has said he will ‘educate’ Filipinos about his verbal agreement with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in the disputed South China Sea

But Filipinos want him to talk about jobs, pay and other livelihood issues

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers a speech in Manila on July 12. Photo: EPA

Published: 6:15pm, 21 Jul 2019Updated: 11:20pm, 21 Jul 2019

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address on Monday promises to be an audiovisual extravaganza, with an 80-piece symphony orchestra, an audience of about 3,000 people and a movie director overseeing the entire affair. What nobody can say is if the star of the show will follow the script.

Duterte has been unpredictable in the three previous renditions of his annual speech before Congress, which is supposed to see him recount his achievements and spell out his priorities.

A recent dispute with China over fishing in the Philippines’ territorial waters could be mentioned. Photo: AP

“Nobody really knows if he’ll read the script given to him” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform and one of the president’s political consultants.

“I have no clue what he’s going to say, he likes to ad-lib.”

On Friday, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said his “educated guess” was that Duterte, who is midway through a six-year term, would talk about “corruption, criminality, drugs, terrorism, maybe the West Philippine Sea”.