Duterte advised: "Choose your words"

An inspirational speaker noted that President Rodrigo Duterte projects a positive image as he is perceived to keep his promises.

However, Francis Kong also reminds the leader to choose his words.

Malacañang on Thursday invited Kong by Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella to a regular briefing to encourage millennials to be entrepreneurs.

Kong also has some advice for President Duterte.

"The one advantage I see him tapping on right now is a sense of authenticity image that the young perceived him to be. Like, whatever he promised, he’s doing it. And that starts to be -- among the young people right now," said Kong.

While he understands Duterte's tough talk, Kong reminded him that words can be powerful.

"Words are extremely powerful and you and I need to understand, the moment our words leave our mouth, they are no longer ours, we have to be accountable. But we cannot change our words that would make us detached from our personality and our humanness and our real self," he said.

"We can, however, choose words that will not compromise on its integrity, but perhaps say it in a more palatable way that people can understand and so that you lessen the risk of being misunderstood," he added.

He said that Duterte, a native Visayan, might have difficulty translating his thoughts from his vernacular to Filipino or English.

"So I would rather just give him the benefit of the doubt and I would say that as long as what you say aligns with what you do, then that for me spells authenticity," he said.

Kong also observed that among business people, Duterte is hard to describe.

"It’s unconventional. I’ve been talking with a lot of business people, they say there’s not even a category where you can rate him. Because, frankly, I’ve met so many leaders, he’s a rare breed of his own. So I wouldn’t know what the quantifying measures and starters should be in rating him. It’s either. Whether something is perceived as good or bad depends on the eye looking at it," he said.

"For example, he is very popular among Asian leaders that understand Asian discipline eh. But he is not look upon favorably by the West that do not understand Asian discipline. Well, that in itself should give us enough stuff to calculate and evaluate where is he, where is he now? So I do have to apologize, I don’t have the matrix in order to rank him," he added. — BAP, GMA News