President Rodrigo Duterte told his Cabinet members to learn the Visayan language and to speak in the vernacular.

Duterte recalled that he was able to call the attention of former Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., during one of their meetings before.

“Ingnan nako, Gabinete baya nako. Paundanga ra’g sulti nang y*** na. ‘Wa ko kasabot unsa’y gisulti ana,” he said in a speech delivered before indigenous peoples in Davao City last Thursday.

(I told him since he is one of my Cabinet secretaries. I ordered him to stop. ‘I don’t understand what he is talking about.’)

“Pag-Binisaya. Kay sa Gabinete, mag-Binisaya man ko. So ingnan nako sila, “Di mo kasabot? Ah sige pagtuon mo. Dili ko na problema. Dili ko miyembro, ako’y inyong hepe sa Cabinet. Paminaw mo’g unsa’y akong isulti. ‘Di mo kasabot, pagtuon mo’g Bisaya, kanang Cebuano,” he added.

(Talk in Bisaya. I speak in the vernacular during our Cabinet meetings. So I told them, “You cannot understand? You should learn. It’s not my problem. I am not a member, I am the chief of this Cabinet. Listen to what I say. If you can’t understand, learn Bisaya or Cebuano dialect.)

Duterte has been using both Filipino and Visayan in his speeches.