Filipino-British boy meets Duterte

FILIPINO-British boy Ethan Richmond Llanes, who became an internet sensation when his video that showed him pretending to call President Rodrigo Duterte to get the bad guys, finally met the President in Malacañan Palace on Tuesday, August 30.

In the video posted last March 16, Ethan was shown holding a toy walkie-talkie while in a conversation with his mother, Mylene Llanes, who was the one taking the video.

Ethan pretended to call “Dutehteh” telling him to get rid of the bad guys and bring them to jail.

The video garnered more than 200,000 views and 3,000 shares since it was uploaded.

There were several other videos that showed Ethan’s fixation with the President one of which was him saying he was sad because he was not able to see the President and give him a hug.

Ethan and his mother visited Davao City recently, and went to the President’s house in the hope that the boy will meet his idol.

He was disappointed. But all his disappointments disappeared when he was welcomed to the Palace with his mother.

Boy's face lit up as President Duterte entered and greeted him with a fist bump. The President then lifted him in his arms and asked him to make a fist as cameras clicked.

"Tigasa uy," Duterte murmured as Ethan made a fist for the cameras.

Afterwards, Duterte sat him on the Presidential chair, telling him to "sit properly like a gentleman."

Ethan sat, with legs crossed and a hand on his cheek, trying to keep up a conversation with the President while his mother in the background could be heard telling him, "Don't be shy."

The President picked him up again and sat him on his lap, checked a nick on the boy's head and said something, although this was garbled.

"This is something you will enjoy looking at when you're old and when you come back to the Philippines as a grown up man, you will have pictures," the President said as he moved him to face the cameras.

What followed was a light play with the boy and Duterte, Ethan jumping up and down while Duterte was pretending to be scared, to the delight of the boy who jumped over and over again.

The “awwwww” moment was when Ethan hugged Duterte around the President's tummy.

In a Facebook post, Ethan’s mother said the meeting was surreal, adding the President had a commanding presence, it was breath-taking to be in the same room with him, which made the typically noisy little Ethan become shy and timid.

After the meeting, Llanes recounted, she asked Ethan in the car if he was fine because he was very quiet after the meeting.

Ethan replied he was "very nervous" and that Duterte was "so real.”

She named two people, Chito Samontina and one Sir Ben, as being instrumental in Ethan’s journey to meet the President. The funniest in that encounter, she said, was when Duterte told Ethan, "Ayaw lang untag kaliwat sa imong mama, Dong (I hope you don’t grow up like your mom)."

The President was referring to her height. “Big love to family and friends as well who have been a great support and made our short holiday very meaningful,” she said. “We are forever grateful for granting Ethan's wish and it will always be the best day ever. Daghang Salamat Tay.”