Palace says New York Times report on Duterte a 'well-paid hack job'

Malacañang on Wednesday slammed the New York Times report on President Rodrigo Duterte as a “well-paid hack job” and an attempt to “bully” the chief executive.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the New York Times “cynically and unfairly narrates the President’s rise to power in the context of violence.”

“One would expect more from The New York Times. Their article, ‘Becoming Duterte: The Making of a Philippine Strongman, sounds like a well-paid hack job for well-heeled clients with shady motives,” Abella said.

The report published Tuesday and authored by investigative journalist Richard Paddock traced back Duterte’s political career and the circumstances that made him a “killer-savior.”

“Mr. Duterte and his friends have long cultivated legends of his sadistic exploits, like throwing a drug lord from a helicopter and forcing a tourist who violated a smoking ban to eat his cigarette butt at gunpoint. It is a thuggish image that Mr. Duterte embraces,” Paddock wrote.

“Whether Mr. Duterte has done what he says — the killings he claims to have carried out are impossible to verify — he has realized his gory vision in national policy. First as a mayor, now as president of the Philippines, he has encouraged the police and vigilantes to kill thousands of people with impunity,” he further said.

Abella defended Duterte’s achievements in Davao during his term as mayor, including making the city “one of the safest” in the world.

The Palace official further said that contrary to the New York Times report, Duterte has vowed to reduce crime and poverty, and reinforce peace agreements with the Moro people and the communist rebels.

“One gets the feeling NYT is not interested in presenting the whole truth, only that with which they can bully those who attempt an independent foreign policy,” Abella said.

Since he took office, Duterte has said that his government will pursue an independent foreign policy and veer away from the United States, the Philippines’ longtime ally. —KBK, GMA News