How do you deal with a president like Rodrigo Duterte?

Rodrigo Duterte is not always a man of his word. He says so himself: “If it’s preposterous, don’t believe me.” This makes the Philippines’ 16th president a tough nut to crack, especially for people who make a living out of weaving together words, like journalists.

With his ask-me-anything, expletive-laden press conferences, he offers a fountainhead of quotable bombshells and click bait. But it can also be exasperating to sort through the muck and try to figure out when he’s being serious or just being theatrical.

Many of his past incendiary remarks were explained away a day later as “just a joke” or “taken out of context”. 

He said he had Stage 4 cancer and was dying. That one was a joke. He said he would deliver a five-minute speech during his inauguration on June 30. Another joke.

Just last week, he said journalists were being killed because they were corrupt. That was not a joke, but his spokesman Salvador Panelo was quick to brush it off as a “misunderstanding”. Duterte was just stating a fact, not saying reporters who take bribes then attack anyway deserve to die.

So, how do you solve a problem like Duterte? Well, you can’t. There is truth in the saying, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

The next leader of the Philippines is 71 years old, and for the last 30 years he has seen the world revolve around him. 

In his southern home city of Davao, he is as revered as a pharaoh. He may call everyone – including the Pope and the United Nations – sons of bitches, or joke that he should have been given first dibs in the rape of an Australian missionary. But Davaoenos will forgive him or make up excuses.

“That’s just the way he is,” is a common refrain from his believers, who insist the only important thing is that he brought peace and prosperity to Davao, and will now do the same for the whole of the Philippines. Just you wait and see.

That kind of positive reinforcement tends to nurture a huge ego, and the last thing a huge ego responds to is criticism.

That was on full display when, told there was a call to boycott his press conferences because he said corrupt journalists were legitimate murder targets, he blurted: “You idiots! Do not threaten me. I said I’m ready to lose the presidency, my honour or my life. … I do not care if no one is covering me.”

He added, “Boycott me? I will boycott you!” and went on to announce he would no longer be holding news conferences but sending his statements through a government-run TV station.

(It didn’t matter that the boycott call came from a foreign media organisation and that most Filipino journalists promptly rejected it as ill-advised.)

His aides say he just needs a little room. Duterte can seem petulant, but he just needs “leeway”, some “understanding”, because he’s in his element when he’s playing the role of the well-meaning ruffian.

He is a “watch what I do, not what I say” kind of guy, and he should be regarded in that vein.

By that measure, he has done fairly well so far.He has assembled a crack team of economic managers made up of veteran cabinet ministers and academic experts. With just a few words to the Chinese ambassador, he managed to stop China from harassing Filipinos fishing near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Newspaper columnist Boo Chanco said the best way for journalists to handle Duterte would be to ignore the hysterics and focus instead on the mundane substance.

“He is enjoying himself shocking the socks off the folks in Manila,” said Chanco. Journalists should deny him that pleasure, and instead “pick on what’s substantive”.

Duterte has promised, though, to be a different man when he is sworn into office on June 30. There will be a “metamorphosis in the mind”, he said.

He would begin conducting himself with the dignity that the office of the president demands, he added, although he insists on operating in his own time zone. Like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Duterte prefers to start work early in the afternoon and end the day past midnight. He will also run the country from Davao, 970km south of the capital Manila.

A semblance of order, after the current pub-like atmosphere surrounding him? We shall see.