Palace not sure if social media really helped Duterte won presidency
Malacanang said on Monday it was not sure if social media, such as Facebook, really helped President Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency.
This was after Facebook recently announced that it has taken down 200 pages and accounts, including those organized by President Rodrigo Duterte's social media manager Nic Gabunda.
"I don’t think the President has anything to do with those Facebook accounts which was initiated during the campaign or even during the assumption of his presidency. He doesn’t know anything about it," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a press briefing.
Asked if social media played a big role in Duterte's presidential bid in 2016, he said, "You must remember that since both sides are active, you will never know whether you benefited from that or you lost in the fight. These are between the two sides."
"To my mind, what is important is, overwhelming mass of our people voted him into office and majority of them are not into social media ? these are the masses," he said.
He said Duterte's campaign promises "resonated" with the Filipinos, thus, they elected him.
"His time was just right. The Filipino people needed somebody like him, and his entry was just the appropriate time," Panelo said when further pressed if Duterte would still win even without the social media.
He said Duterte was not distracted with criticisms being posted even on social media.
Panelo noted that during the campaign, it was not only Duterte's camp that resorted to social media, but the other candidates as well. Celerina Monte/DMS
