Palace has own definition of ‘duterte’: Panelo

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Urban Dictionary defined duterte as a verb that means “to scam, trick, con, or use unscrupulous means to an end; or to betray.” (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang shrugged off on Tuesday the inclusion of the word ‘duterte’ in the crowd-sourced online Urban Dictionary and provided its own definition of the word associated with President Rodrigo Duterte’s surname.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Urban Dictionary defined duterte as a verb that means “to scam, trick, con, or use unscrupulous means to an end; or to betray.”

As an adjective, duterte is defined as “deceptive, sly, fake, corrupt, crooked, treacherous, of low quality” and as a noun to mean “a scam, sham, rip-off, a traitor.”

“If that dictionary definition of duterte refers to the President, then we have our own definition of the man, which is exactly the opposite of what that dictionary gives,” Panelo said during a Palace briefing.

“Duterte, to us, means honest, incorruptible, politically-willed person, courageous, selfless, honest, transparent, and all good things that come,” he added.

Meanwhile, Panelo said he has yet to determine if the word duterte as defined in Urban Dictionary refers to the President alone or his family.

Panelo said he had just heard of Urban Dictionary and only recognized more popular dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.

He said he will ask the President how he feels about having his name defined as such in Urban Dictionary.

Inaccurate, illegitimate, and defamatory

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, meanwhile, denounced the act of associating the President’s surname with “degrading words.”

Andanar said the online content featured in the Urban Dictionary is contributed by anyone who has access to their website, and voted upon by unaccredited editors.

“In the absence of strict rules, style guides, and moderators, the contributions therein are essentially inaccurate, illegitimate, and defamatory,” Andanar said.

Despite these degrading descriptions, Andanar cited two different survey results, which showed that 80 percent of Filipinos are satisfied with the Chief Executive’s performance, and 85 percent approved of and trust his leadership.

Andanar said the results of the 2019 mid-term elections favoring Duterte-aligned candidates is a testament of the Chief Executive’s performance in driving out corruption in government and ending illegal drugs.

He also cited Philippine National Police reports that crime rate in the Philippines declined by 21.48 percent from July 2016 to June 2018 compared to the same period from 2014 to 2016.

He said these figures are part of the PCOO’s mandate to dismiss disinformation from various forms of publication including Urban Dictionary.

Urban Dictionary is a crowd-sourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases and was founded by Aaron Peckham in 1999.