Duterte denies connection to Cambridge Analytica

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday denied any links to British political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica following reports that its parent company had helped his election campaign in 2016.

Duterte addressed the issue three days after Malacañang said he never transacted with or paid the British firm currently embroiled in a Facebook data harvesting scandal to influence voters to his favor when he was running for president.

"Wala akong alam. Hindi ko man kilala 'yan," the President said at a press briefing in Davao City after his arrival from a working visit to China.

"Saka bakit ako magbabayad sa mga ugok na Cambridge ang magtrabaho para sa kampanya ko? Lalo akong matalo niyan,” he added.

A longtime mayor of Davao City, Duterte was catapulted to the presidency on a campaign promise to stamp out illegal drugs and corruption.

He won the May 2016 election with 16.6 million votes, a margin of over six million votes over his closest rival.

"Wala akong Cambridge, Cambridge, Oxford. Basta ang aking kampanya simple lang," Duterte said.

The South China Morning Post reported last week that Strategic Communications Laboratories (SCL), the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, helped Duterte win the elections by rebranding him as "tough crime fighter."

It was also reported that suspended Cambridge Analytica chief executive officer Alexander Nix dined in 2015 with Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Viña and Peter Tiu Laviña, who played important roles in Duterte's campaign particularly in the social media aspect.

The Palace said Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, in his capacity as treasurer of the Duterte campaign, claimed that Cambridge Analytica was not paid to boost Duterte’s appeal to voters.

It also 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."

Facebook has said that 1.1 million accounts of Filipinos may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, which was accused of using Facebook users’ data to aid the campaign of United States President Donald Trump.

Cambridge Analytica consultancy has denied wrongdoing, saying it engaged a university professor "in good faith" to collect Facebook data in a manner similar to how other third-party app developers have harvested personal information.

The data breach has reportedly impacted 87 million users of the popular social media platform. —KG, GMA News