PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Manet has defended the more than US$1.5 million dollars he has spent on boosting his Facebook posts, while also explaining that the funds did not come from the Kingdom’s national budget.
He said he has the right to boost posts, noting that it is a personal matter, and something that his communications team have been doing for several years.
“They use the excuse that I am wasting money, that I spent US$1.5 million. I don't know how much it is because it's been done by my team for three or four years, not just one. Sometimes it's 1,000, 2,000, or 5,000 dollars. At first, it was a little more,” he said, as he addressed a graduation ceremony at the Asia-Euro University on February 19.
“Due to this issue, I had my team conduct some research on this topic and found that US President Donald Trump spent US$134 million on Facebook boosting from 2018 to 2024,” he added.
His comments appeared to be in response to a report by US-based Radio Free Asia, which published on February 13 that Manet had “spent nearly 2 million dollars on Facebook ads to promote his activities over a period of 3 years” from September 2022 to February 2025.
Manet continued by pointing out that even then-US Vice President Kamala Harris, presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, spent US$182 million on her short-term campaign ads in 2024.
In the Asean region, he mentioned that Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. also spent US$20 million dollars on Facebook during the 2020 elections.
The practice of boosting posts to get more views is also common among other leaders in Asean countries, even on TikTok, he continued.
He also responded to criticism about why he didn't use the money for helping citizens, by clarifying that he spends approximately 1.5 million dollars on scholarships for students both domestically and internationally and helps poor citizens, veterans, disabled centres and many other social causes, using his personal funds as well as donations.
“I promoted this [Facebook posts] even before I became prime minister, because I have the right to do so. Everyone does it – even real estate agents boost their posts. They don’t just boost on Facebook themselves, they also hire people to do it,” he said. - Phnom Penh Post/ANN
