HIS joke starts with the generals. “The generals don’t even go to war anymore. They just call ‘OK, fight well’.” President Rodrigo Duterte is speaking before a roomful of military men and former communist fighters, of whom a good number are women. His joke hangs on an imaginary conversation between a general giving long distance orders to a subordinate in the field. He tells it in Visayan, in his boozy, bumbling old man’s voice. Duterte raises his hand to his ear and pretends to be speaking into a telephone. The audience titters. The President pauses, wipes his nose with the back of his hand, and the dialogue lurches on. “So how many dead? “Three.” Three?! Son of bitch! Make sure to get more than them. Are there women? Are they holding guns?” “Yes sir. Fighters. Amazons.” “Shoot them in the vagina.” Cue more laughter. But we haven’t yet reached the punch line. Here it is. The President directly addresses the women in the room. “The Mayor,” he says, referring to himself, “has a new order not to kill you. Just shoot you in the vagina. No more vagina, you’re useless.”