(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has designated Kabayan Partylist Rep. Harry Roque as presidential spokesperson.
Roque himself confirmed in a dzmm radio interview early Saturday that he had accepted the offer, but that he would assume the post on Nov. 6.
“Ako po ay manunungkulan pagka-landing po namin sa Japan dahil kasama po ako sa delegasyon ni Presidente papuntang Japan,” Roque said.
The President is slated to be on a 3-day working visit to Japan from Oct. 29 to Oct. 31.
Roque will have the rank of secretary.
According to Roque, the President did not say why he was replacing Ernesto Abella, who has a rank of undersecretary.
But his designation comes amid rumors the President was dissatisfied with how Abella explained to the media Duterte’s tirade against the European Union and his challenge for them to strip the Philippines off its membership in the United Nations.
In an Oct. 13 press conference, Abella had said that the President may have been fed wrong information from reports that said that the EU itself was calling for the country’s removal from the UN.
But in subsequent speeches, Duterte repeated his tirades against the EU, noting that the bloc never disowned at the first instance the Human Rights Watch mission composed of Europeans who made the remark that the country could be stripped off its membership from the UN.
Members of the group made the remark after visiting the Philippines, which they claimed had a dismal human rights record, noting, among others, the government’s alleged persecution of Senator Leila de Lima.
The EU disowned the mission only after Duterte blasted the bloc.
“Not a church”
According to Roque, the chief executive only said that Abella was really a “pastor” and “this is not a church.”
“…Ang kailangan daw ay yung naiintindihan ang kanyang ibig sabihin at nakaka-anggulo rin,” Roque said.
Roque’s new designation was confirmed by the President himself, who attended the congressman’s birthday party in Davao on Friday night.
“It has to be somebody who is articulate. Somebody who has a working knowledge of at least the government,” Duterte said.