{"id":208033,"date":"2019-04-01T23:40:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T03:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=208033"},"modified":"2019-04-01T23:40:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T03:40:47","slug":"no-govt-funds-used-in-pro-duterte-facebook-accounts-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/01\/no-govt-funds-used-in-pro-duterte-facebook-accounts-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"No gov\u2019t funds used in pro-Duterte Facebook accounts: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI don\u2019t think the President has anything to do with those Facebook accounts which were initiated during the campaign or even during the assumption of his presidency. He doesn\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday assured the public that no government funds were used to pay for the creation of Facebook accounts, groups, and pages which supported President Rodrigo R. Duterte.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after around 200 pro-Duterte accounts, groups, and pages operating in a network built by communications strategist Nicanor Gabunada Jr. were taken down for involvement in a \u201ccoordinated and inauthentic behavior\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think the President has anything to do with those Facebook accounts which were initiated during the campaign or even during the assumption of his presidency. He doesn\u2019t know anything about it,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President has nothing to do with that and we\u2019ll not allow that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Gabunada, Social Media Director of the Duterte Campaign, claimed he was being \u201csingled out\u201d for having his account\/s taken down while accounts which belonged to those who supported the opposition were not.<\/p>\n

Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher, however, said that Gabunada\u2019s network was removed for misleading people using a network of fake accounts.<\/p>\n

Panelo emphasized that other candidates including the opposition have utilized social media to win the election.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he said even without the strong social media influence which may have helped boost his chances of winning the presidential seat, the overwhelming majority voted him into office.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth sides were very active during the campaign. It\u2019s still the people who decided and most of them are not in social media. The overwhelming majority that voted him into office — I don\u2019t think they have Facebook accounts of whatever. These are the masses,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Panelo further said Duterte was elected into office because his campaign promises as a candidate resonated with the masses.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis time was just right. The Filipino people needed somebody like him and his entry was just the appropriate time,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, who promised to fight drugs, crime, and corruption, won the elections by a landslide 16.6 million votes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday assured the public that no government funds were used to pay for the creation of Facebook …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":187138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208034,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208033\/revisions\/208034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}