(Eagle News) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was chosen as among the 74 “World’s Most Powerful People” in the influential Forbes’ annual ranking this year, along with world leaders Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President-elect Donald Trump, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Chinese President Xi Jinping who ranked first to fourth place respectively.
Mr. Duterte ranked no. 70 in the Forbes’ ranking, and is one of the 11 new names on the list this year.
His “idol,” Putin was on the top of the list for the fourth consecutive year.
Forbes said that Duterte’s “tendency to say what he thinks, no matter how raw, also keeps him in the headlines.”
“The former mayor of Davao City was elected president of the Philippines in May 2016 on the strength of a campaign that promised the swift execution of drug users and other criminals, and his war on crime has already resulted in the killing of thousands of people,” it said.
“In October, Duterte announced a ‘separation’ from a century-long strategic alliance with United States, and plans to realign the Philippines towards China,” according to its description of the Philippine President.
As for the top three of the World’s Most Powerful People, Forbes has this to say:
“For the fourth consecutive year, Forbes ranked Russian President Vladimir Putin as the world’s most powerful person. From the motherland to Syria to the U.S. presidential elections, Russia’s leader continues to get what he wants. In second place, President-elect Donald Trump has a seeming immunity to scandal, both houses of Congress on his side, and a personal net worth in the billions. And the third most powerful person in the world also happens to be the most powerful woman: Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany and the backbone of the European Union.”
“There are nearly 7.4 billion humans on planet Earth, but these 74 men and women make the world turn,” it said.
“Forbes’ annual ranking of the World’s Most Powerful People identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most,” it said.
In compiling the list, Forbes said they “considered hundreds of candidates from various walks of life all around the globe, and measured their power along four dimensions.”
“First, we asked whether the candidate has power over lots of people. Next we assessed the financial resources controlled by each person. Then we determined if the candidate is powerful in multiple spheres. Lastly, we made sure that the candidates actively used their power,” Forbes said.
“To calculate the final rankings, a panel of Forbes editors ranked all of our candidates in each of these four dimensions of power, and those individual rankings were averaged into a composite score. This year’s list comes at a time of rapid and profound change, and represents our best guess about who will matter in the year to come,” it said.
The 11 new names on the Forbes’ list this year were the following: Theresa May, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (#13); Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber (#64); Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company (#67); Mike Pence, Vice President-Elect of the United States (#69); Rodrigo Duterte, President of the Philippines (#70); and Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands (#72). Two former members also return to the list this year: Antonio Guterres, incoming Secretary General of the United Nations (#36, last appearance in 2009); and Recep Erdogan, President of Turkey (#56, last appearance in 2011).