Rodrigo Duterte has barely been in power a hundred days, but he has already made more news in that time than some leaders do in their entire terms of office. The Philippine president has launched a bloody war on drugs, threatened the country’s linchpin alliance with the US and hit the headlines with stinging remarks about targets ranging from Barack Obama to the UN. He has been compared to Donald Trump and has likened himself to Adolf Hitler.

The outrage caused by Mr Duterte’s apparently uncontrollable furies has masked the canny manoeuvring of a veteran politician who swept to a surprise landslide election victory in May. His sales pitch mixes populism of the socially progressive left and the authoritarian right with a stand-up comedian’s urge to entertain — not to mention a blitheness about causing offence.

“The Philippines audience appreciates the overall effect, whereas the international observers focus on the most insane comments,” says Richard Javad Heydarian, a Philippine political analyst, who identifies what he calls the “three Dutertes”: showman, punisher and power-playing Machiavelli. “That’s why he remains popular, but the world is revolted by him.”