MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang rejected the definition of “Duterte” in the online Urban Dictionary (UD) and offered an alternative definition instead: “incorruptible, “honest,” “transparent,” and “all good things.”

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo gave this positive-sounding definition on Tuesday, August 20, after he was told in a Palace news briefing about the Urban Dictionary entry.

“Duterte to us means honest, incorruptible, politically-willed person, courageous, selfless, honest, transparent, and all good things that come to – and other synonymous terms,” Panelo said.

“If that dictionary, if that definition refers to the President, then we have our own definition of the man which is exactly opposite of what that dictionary gives,” he also said.

The Urban Dictionary, an online dictionary to which anyone can submit entries that are voted upon by volunteer editors for inclusion in the resource, gave a very different definition of “Duterte” from that of the Palace’s.

It classifies the term as a verb, an adjective, and a noun which can mean “scam,” a “traitor,” “fake,” “of low quality,” among others.

Panelo, who had not heard of the Urban Dictionary before, initially questioned if the term “Duterte” refers to President Rodrigo Duterte specifically. He also initially surmised that the Urban Dictionary is “false news.”

Andanar condemns UD definition

Meanwhile, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar condemned UD’s definition of “Duterte.”

“We strongly denounce the act of associating the name of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte with degrading words such as ‘scam’ and ‘traitor,'” he said in a statement sent to media.

He slammed the process involved in approving the publication of a new word’s definition in UD’s site, saying it leads to “essentially inaccurate, illegitimate, and defamatory” definitions.

In particular, he assailed the supposed “absence of strict rules, style guides, and moderators” involved in UD’s approval of a definition.

There are no strict rules for defining a word or phrase on UD, as long as a context is provided. A person may submit definitions to UD without registering but must provide a valid email address.

For the word to be published on UD, volunteer editors will vote on the definitions and rate them as either “Publish” or “Don’t Publish.”

To counter the negative connotation of UD’s definition, Andanar pointed to nationwide surveys conducted by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia that have consistently shown high approval and trust ratings for Duterte. Rappler.com