President Rodrigo Duterte

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte has been named as the "Person of the Year" by a Chinese magazine, a palace official said Tuesday.

Yazhou Zhoukan, "the Time magazine of the Chinese-speaking world," gave the award to Duterte after the Filipino leader's "announcement of his independent foreign policy, his distancing away from the US, and forging closer ties with China," presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said.

"Article also praises Duterte's good governance and anti-corruption camapign as the reason for his popularity among Filipinos," Abella added.

Yazhou Zhoukan claims to be the only international affairs magazine in Chinese, and is being circulated in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, Abella said.