Fashion PULIS

Images courtesy of Facebook: Joaquin Sy

President Rodrigo Duterte was hailed 2016’s “Person of the Year” by Chinese magazine, Yazhou Zhoukan (Asia Weekly).

The Philippine leader appeared in a 7-page cover story in the January 1, 2017 issue of the publication, considered the “TIME magazine of the Chinese-speaking world.”

Facebook user Joaquin Sy, who uploaded scanned pages of the Yazhou Zhoukan’s feature on Duterte, said the chief executive was given the recognition for having “changed the balance of power in Asia.”

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said that Duterte’s “announcement of an independent foreign policy that consists of his distancing away from the us, and forging closer ties with China” were the magazine’s basis for giving the title to the Filipino leader.

“The article also praises Duterte’s good governance and anti-corruption campaign as the reason for his popularity among Filipino,” Abella stated in a palace press briefing on Tuesday, January 3.

Yazhou Zhoukan is the “world’s only Chinese-language international affairs magazine” published in Hong Kong and circulated in several Asian countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

Recently, Duterte was included in Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s most powerful people.

He was also named as the “most ‘googled’ person of 2016” in the Philippines, while Wikipedia cited his entry as one of the most edited pages in the free online encyclopedia.