Palace denies political consultancy firm was paid to bolster Duterte’s 2016 campaign

Malacañang on Tuesday denied that President Rodrigo Duterte transacted with or paid a political consultancy firm to influence voters to his favor when he was a running for president in the May 2016 elections.

In a statement, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte won the election "fair and square," garnering over 16 million votes and a margin of over six million to his next opponent.

"Support for the former Davao City mayor was from all sectors and not just from Facebook or online," he said. "Thus, the Duterte campaign did not have to purchase information."

The South China Morning Post reported last week that the parent company of British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, Strategic Communications Laboratories, helped Duterte win the elections by influencing voters in various campaigns around the world.

The SCL group, the report said, bolstered Duterte's campaign by rebranding him as "tough crime fighter."

A separate report said that Cambridge Analytica's suspended board of director, Alexander Nix, had dined with Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña and Peter Tiu Laviña, who played important roles in Duterte's campaign particularly in the social media aspect.

Roque, however, said that Cambridge Analytica was not paid to boost Duterte's presidential campaign.

"The Secretary of Finance, in his capacity as treasurer of the PRRD campaign, assures that he did not pay anything to Cambridge Analytica nor did he transact with them," he said.

He urged critics to "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." —KBK, GMA News