President Duterte won the 2016 election not because of Cambridge Analytica’s Strategic Communications Laboratories – Palace
President Rodrigo Duterte allegedly won during the 2016 presidential elections through the help of Cambridge Analytica, a research firm which used the personal data of Facebook users to influence their choices.
A previous article pointed out that the Chief Executive of the Philippines was a client of the said research firm.
Doubts started to arise if Duterte really had a connection with Cambridge Analytica as it used Facebook data without the knowledge of the owners.
In line with this issue, the Malacañang denied that the presidency of Duterte has something do to with the research company.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque stated that the President Duterte won the election fairly, based on the article published in The Philippine Star.
He also stressed out that the former Davao City Mayor did not pay a single dime for the company that harvested data on Facebook.
Roque also attested that the treasurer of Duterte during his campaign, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, already assured the public that he has not paid anything to Cambridge Analytica’s parent company, Strategic Communications Laboratories, which was revealed to be behind the influence to voters during the US presidential election last 2016.
It was said that SCL boasted about it on its site about his client in the Philippines which allegedly referred to Duterte but eventually the statement was deleted.
“The secretary of Finance, in his capacity as treasurer of the PRRD campaign, assures (sic) that he did not pay anything to Cambridge Analytica nor did he transact with them,” Roque stated.
According to Roque, Duterte got an “overwhelming mandate of over 16 million votes and a margin of over six million”.
That is from different sectors, based on his statement, and not just from social media users.
Furthermore, the presidential spokesperson iterated that people should respect the landslide victory of President Rodrigo Duterte, based on the article.