Malacanang criticized a part of the Time Magazine poll article which showed President Rodrigo Duterte as having manipulated social media to get a clear lead in a poll for the worlds most influential person.

In the third paragraph of the Time article posted on March 31 in its website, it said Duterte has been known to use social media to promote his agenda and has reportedly paid people to push him to popularity online.

Accusing him of using paid writers, they wantonly paint Mr Duterte as manipulating social media to boost his popularity in the online TIME poll, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

Abella said Dutertes high ranking in the poll was due to his support from the masses.

They totally do not get that the common people actually support him and his drive to build an independent Filipino nationalbeit still a rather social conservative one, Abella said. DMS