(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte made dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a rather informal event, as he cracked jokes, and made attendees laugh several times.
The audience first erupted in laughter when Duterte showed surprise after a female voice was suddenly heard right after he read the first few paragraphs of his prepared speech.
It turns out the woman was supposed to translate into Japanese what President Duterte was saying.
“Oh, sorry,” a smiling and apologetic Duterte said.
He then proceeded to leaf through the pages of his prepared speech, as the interpreter made her translation.
When it was Duterte’s turn to speak again, the President instead cracked another joke.
“I will skip two pages of my prepared speech and go to the last page because I am hungry,” he said, to loud laughter from members of the audience.
At the end of his speech in which he called Japan a “friend,” wished “good health and happiness” for Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, and “good health and success” for Abe, Duterte again joked he would fire his speech writer.
“He is a book author, not a speech writer,” he said, again to laughs from the audience.