Duterte is PH’s most googled person—Time magazine

President Rodrigo Duterte salutes the troops during the 81st anniversary of the Armed Forces at Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

President Rodrigo Duterte was the most googled person in the Philippines this year, Time magazine reported.

In the article “See the Most Googled Person in Each Country in 2016,” Duterte was tagged as “known for waging a deadly war on drugs.”

Time collated search-engine information from Google and enumerated the top-searched names this year. The list included only living personalities.

Many singers and actors emrged as their respective countries’ top-trending persons. In Iraq, Mohammed Al-Saleh, famous for his song “Qalb Qalb” was the country’s most frequently searched personality. In Guatemala, it was Argentine model and TV personality Horacio Pancheri, and in Thailand, it was Soong-Jong-ki, a South Korean actor who played a leading role in the blockbuster drama “Descendants of the Sun.”

Some controversial politicians, aside from Duterte, also topped their countries’ Google searches, including Brazil’s former head of state Lula da Silva and disqualified Peruvian presidential candidate Julio Guzman.

Several athletes made it to the list of top searched persons, such as Olympian swimmer Joseph Schooling in Singapore, baseball player Yulieski Gourriel in Cuba, and soccer sensation Alireza Mohammad in Iran. Also, cycling multi-medalist Mariana Pajon was Colombia’s most-searched individual on Google.

American personalities also dominated Google searches outside of the US, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio in Morocco, model Gigi Hadid in Montenegro, actress Angelina Jolie in Tunisia, chanteuse Celine Dion in France and tech mogul Bill Gates in Nepal.

However, it was US President-elect Donald Trump who ignited colossal curiosity from internet users around the globe. Trump ranked first among many Google searches in 88 nations, “far more places than anyone else in the world,” Time said.  Gianna Francesca Catolico