Philippines calls claim China influenced 2016 election to favour Duterte ‘nonsense’

Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario made the claim at a forum on Monday, citing a ‘most reliable international entity’

He said senior Chinese officials were ‘bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president’

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2019. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:30pm, 12 Jul 2021Updated: 8:39pm, 12 Jul 2021

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s office on Monday described as “nonsense” a suggestion by a former foreign minister that Beijing may have helped to determine the outcome of a 2016 election that swept the mercurial leader to power.

Speaking at a forum on Monday, former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario said a “most reliable international entity” had informed him that senior Chinese officials were “bragging that they had been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that Duterte would be president”.

Del Rosario, a key player in the Philippines’ landmark arbitration victory against Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims, did not elaborate on the source of the information he said he received in early 2019, how it was obtained, or how China might have influenced the election outcome.

Albert Del Rosario speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, while still the Philippines’ minister of foreign affairs. Photo: Reuters

Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque, in his regular briefing, described Del Rosario’s remarks as “nonsense” and called him a “proven traitor” before telling him to “shut up”.

Roque has accused Del Rosario, during his time as foreign secretary, of ceding control of the Scarborough Shoal to China.

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