Someone involved with the presidential campaign in the Philippines has been thinking out of the box and using Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to promote one candidate.
Coconuts Manila reports that a meme has been circulating in Philippine social media since Apr 22, with PM Lee’s head shot and a fake caption: “Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is the only presidential candidate that could make Philippines like Singapore. Clean, efficient and disciplined.”
The Singapore Embassy in the Philippines has called it misleading and mischievous. “Singapore does not endorse any candidate. The choice is for Filipinos alone to make. We wish the Philippines well in the conduct of its elections,” it said on its Facebook page.
“The Embassy takes a serious view of the misleading FB post. We are seeking legal advice. We also request the immediate removal of the post, which is a clear misrepresentation,” the Embassy added.
The meme is still being circulated, as of this writing.
Tough-talking Duterte, 71, is the Philippines’ leading presidential candidate based on independent polls. He is running on a tough, anti-crime and anti-corruption platform, but he has also courted controversy because of his inappropriate remarks on sensitive issues.
Recently he caused outrage with a joke about the jailhouse rape of an Australian lay Christian missionary who was killed in a 1989 prison riot in Duterte’s own city, Davao. He then threatened to sever ties with allies the United States and Australia after their ambassadors criticised his remarks.
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