You are the light, Duterte croons at Trump’s request

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte crooned a Filipino love song at the gala dinner in Manila for visiting foreign leaders on Sunday night, joking that it was on the orders of the US commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.

Duterte and Trump were among the 19 leaders at the glittering gathering at the SMX Convention Center ahead of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, and at one point Duterte took the microphone to sing “Ikaw” (You), in a duet with “Asia’s Queen of Songs” Pilita Corrales.

One of the song’s verses begins: “Ikaw ang tanglaw sa aking mundo, kabiyak nitong puso ko (You are the light in my world, half of this heart of mine).”

“Ladies and gentlemen, I sang uninvited a duet with Ms. Pilita Corrales upon the orders of the commander-in-chief of the United States,” Duterte said later, according to the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Prior to the surprise duet with Corrales, Trump and leaders of the 10-member ASEAN, China, Russia, Japan, Canada, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand were entertained by singers and dancers at the dinner, with a playlist of The Beatles and Motown hits as warm-up.

To fulfill Duterte’s request for the program to be short and sweet, the half-hour worth of performances covered various genres to suit everyone’s taste – classical ballet, youthful Davao tap dancers, University of the Philippines hip-hop dancers, kiddie ballroom dancers and song numbers by acclaimed artists Lani Misalucha, Jed Madela, nine-year-old cellist Damodar Castillo and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s favorite Fil-Japanese singer Beverly Caimen.

In keeping with the ASEAN tradition of using the host country’s traditional dress, each of the male heads of state sported a cream-colored barong, a traditional Philippines shirt made of fiber from the pineapple plant, hand-embroidered and worn untucked, and Filipiniana for their wives and female leaders created by homegrown designers Albert Andrada, Rajo Laurel and Randy Ortiz.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looked very chic in a barong tagalog blouse paired with a long black skirt, while the ladies swooned over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in his Andrada barong that fitted him to a T.

The leaders were served a four-course Filipino-Asian fusion meal curated and prepared by chef Jessie Sincioco in collaboration with Sofitel. The chef also designed the menu for Pope Francis when he visited the Philippines in 2015.

Portions were quite small for the courses, yet they were elegantly served by the efficient waitstaff members, who also happily offered to take photos of guests whenever the latter would bring out their cameras or cellphones to take group shots.