Palace: Duterte won sans Cambridge Analytica

MANILA, Philippines — Responding to reports after publication of a photograph that linked suspended Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix and close allies of President Duterte, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. yesterday said the Chief Executive won “fair and square” in 2016.

“We should respect the President’s landslide victory, which was a result of the trust and confidence of the Filipino people, and not undermine it with unsubstantiated allegations,” Roque said.

“Support for the former Davao city mayor was from all sectors and not just from Facebook or online; thus, the Duterte campaign did not have to purchase information,” Roque added.

Last Sunday, Presidential Communications Operations Office undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, Jose Gabriel La Viña and Peter La Viña were seen in a photo with Nix at a forum of the National Press Club in May 2015, a year before the presidential elections. 

For his part, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, erstwhile campaign manager of President Duterte, has denied transacting with Cambridge Analytica for Duterte’s presidential bid.

Roque added that Dominguez had no knowledge about Cambridge Analytica’s role in Duterte’s campaign.

“The Secretary of Finance, in his capacity as treasurer of the campaign, assures us that he did not pay Cambridge Analytica or transacted with them,” Roque said in a statement.

For this part, opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is seeking a Senate inquiry into the questionable participation of Cambridge Analytica in the 2016 presidential elections.

He said there was reason to believe that there was “undue influence” exerted during the 2016 presidential elections by the British consulting firm that resulted in President Duterte winning the polls.

He said based on reports, Duterte’s officials have been linked to Cambridge Analytica.

“It’s only Duterte who did fake news during the campaign, and his people are linked to Cambridge Analytica, so you can see that if you got into power through cheating and deception, you will continue to use your power to cheat and deceive,” Trillanes told reporters.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) earlier met with officials of social media giant Facebook over reports of a massive data breach involving Cambridge Analytica. 

NPC commissioner Raymund Liboro said they met with Facebook representatives to discuss the data breach, which involved over 87 million users worldwide. 

“Facebook told the NPC that 558 Filipino users installed Aleksandr Kogan’s personality quiz app, through which personal data may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica,” Liboro said. 

“From this, 1,175,312 more Filipinos may have been subsequently affected via sharing, making the Philippines the second most affected country in terms of total number of data subjects,” he added. 

Earlier data released by the social media company showed the Philippines ranked second in terms of the number of users affected by the data breach, next to the US, which had data of 70 million users compromised. – Paolo Romero