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Malacanang lambasts ‘Person of the Year’ award’ given to Duterte

On December 28, a US non-profit organization named Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as their “Person of the Year” for 2017.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has been giving their Person of the Year Award since 2012 to any “individual who has done the most in the world to advance organized criminal activity and corruption.”

“Duterte has made a mockery of rule of law in his country,” said Drew Sullivan, editor for the OCCRP and one of the nine judges who evaluated the nominees and chose the winner.

Sullivan even added: “While he is not your typical corrupt leader, he has empowered corruption in an innovative way. His death squads have allegedly focused on criminals but, in fact, are less discriminating. He has empowered a bully-run system of survival of the fiercest. In the end, the Philippines are more corrupt, more cruel, and less democratic.”

The global panel consisting of nine corruption-fighting journalists, scholars and activists chose Duterte on the strength of his brutal war on drugs.

According to their website, the OCCRP is an “investigative reporting platform formed by 40 non-profit investigative centers, scores of journalists and several major regional news organizations around the globe.”

In 2016, Duterte was a runner-up for the same award. Nicolas Maduro, president of Venezuela, was last year’s winner

Dispute from the Palace

A day after OCCRP revealed President Duterte as their Person of the Year, the Malacanang quickly disagreed with the organization’s decision.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said that the president is doing the exact opposite of what the organization said.

“Mali ho, mali ho ‘yung award na ‘yun. Hindi ho tama ‘yun,” Andanar said.

According to him, the president is doing everything to fight crime and completely obliterate drug use in the country. Drug trafficking and shipping illegal drug to the country are also some of the things that the president wants to stop.

In terms of corruption, Andanar added that the president has fired people in the government who had been linked to graft and had done questionable activities.

“If I got the gist of the award correctly, it was a wrong award,” he said.

Source: PR from OCCRP with additional reports from Inquirer

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