The Duterte magic works http://xn--mannypiol-r6a.com/ READERSHIP SOARS TO A SHOCKING 3.2-M

By Manny Piñol

Kidapawan City – Back in my farm in Kidapawan City after almost a month on the road with Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte, I woke up to a great surprise this morning to see a Facebook report which said that the readership of this page has soared to 3.2 million people this week.

It was the first time since I started this Facebook page in 2012 that so many number of people across the globe have been shown following the posts I made.

As the administrator of the page, I receive reports from Facebook indicating how many people liked and how many accessed the articles posted in this page.

This week, Facebook reported that the page received 1,637 new “Likes” and the “Post Reached” was at 3.2 million, meaning 3.2 million people were able to see the articles posted here which were shared to them by their friends.

When I started this page with the help of a former staff when I was Governor of North Cotabato, John Pagaduan, I had only about 1,000 “Likes” and only about 30,000 would be the highest number of readers of my posts.

The “Likes” gradually increased and it is now over 108,000 while for a time, the readership rose to 2.6 million late last year.

I noticed, however, that the readership of the articles would shoot up every time I post stories about the pronouncements of Mayor Rody Duterte.

Since I have followed the Mayor in the “Listening Tour” which brought us to so many areas around the country, I have constantly posted stories about his speeches.

The highest readership for one article I wrote about Mayor Duterte was his statement about leadership which earned 2.3 million readers.

The meteoric increase in the readership of this page is a phenomenon which I attribute to the growing interest on Mayor Duterte.

I believe that the 3.2 million people who read the articles in this page wanted to learn more about the man who many believe could be the Philippines’ last card in the fight against criminality, drugs, corruption and insecurity.

This is the Duterte Magic at work.

(Photo credit: Romy Obillo took this picture of Mayor Rody Duterte with a blind child suffering from cancer at the House of Hope in Davao City, a halfway house for cancer patients from all over Mindanao which he supports.)