Palace twits NYT for unfair profile piece on Duterte

MANILA – Malacañang slammed Wednesday newspaper New York Times (NYT) for releasing its “cynical and unfair” report about the life of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said it seemed “well-heeled clients with shady motives” paid the New York Times to publish an in-depth article against the President.

“One would expect more from the New York Times. Their article, ‘Becoming Duterte: The Making of a Philippine Strongman,’ sounds like a well-paid hack job for well-heeled clients with shady motives,” Abella said.

“One gets the feeling NYT is not interested in presenting the whole truth, only that with which they can bully those who attempt an independent foreign policy,” he added.

The New York Times' article published on Tues- day detailed the life of Duterte, whom it said is “a man of multiple contradictions.”

The article revealed that behind Duterte’s “brutish caricature,” his friends, family members, allies and critics, see him "as a man who can be charming and engaging.”

According to article, Duterte’s psychological assessment in 1988 showed he had “narcissistic personality disorder” and a “pervasive tendency to demean, humiliate others and violate their rights.”

“Violence in the house, violence in the school, and violence in the neighborhood… That is why he (Duterte) is always angry. Because if you have pain, when you are young, you are angry all the time,” it read, quoting the President’s brother, Emmanuel Duterte.

NYT said Duterte may have helped people in

need when he was the mayor of Davao City but since he assumed the presidency and waged war on drugs, “he has already surpassed the death toll of President Ferdinand Marcos, whose forces killed about 3,300 political opponents and activists during his harsh 20-year rule.”

The article also said that while Duterte declares himself as anti-drug crusader, “he has struggled with drug abuse himself.”

“Perhaps, some of the President’s mercurial behavior stems from the constant pain he suffers and his use of narcotics to treat it. Mr. Duterte has made a political career of fighting drugs but acknowledged in December that he had been abusing the opioid fentanyl, the powerful and addictive drug,” it said.

Abella, however, downplayed the report and emphasized that Duterte “does not engage in western liberal niceties to promote his agenda, to rebuild a nation with compromised internal structures.”

“NYT cynically and unfairly narrates the President’s rise to power in the context of violence,” the presidential spokesperson said.

Abella said the New York Times also “deliberately” failed to mention Duterte’s accomplishments during his stint as mayor in Davao City.

Davao City, Abella added, was also acknowledged as “one of the safest cities in the world where residents follow an antismoking sign and a midnight alcohol ban.” SunStar Philippines