Duterte denies links with Cambridge Analytica

April 13, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte denied he has any links with British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica which is behind a massive Facebook data breach scandal.

"I have no idea. I didn't know them. Honestly, I'm not convinced with surveys," he said during his press conference in Davao City on Friday.

He said he would have lost the 2016 presidential elections if he had partnered with that firm.

"Why would I pay those in Cambridge to work for my campaign? I will just lose," he said.

"That's not true. I will not trust Cambridge," he added.

Duterte addressed the issue after the South China Morning Post published Nix's picture with cousins Peter Laviña and Jose Gabriel La Viña, then National Press Club president Joel Sy Egco, and Taipan Millan, reportedly a family friend of the Dutertes.

Cambridge Analytica was said to have illegally shared the data of 87 million Facebook users. About 1.2 million who have FB accounts are Filipinos.

Malacanang said Duterte won the election fair and square with an overwhelming mandate of over 16 million votes and a margin of over six million over the second placer, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II. Ella Dionisio/DMS