(Eagle News) — A Palace official has debunked Reuters’ claim that Malacanang never responded to the wire agency reporter’s query seeking for the government’s comment on a report about the so-called “Davao Boys.”
In a statement, Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Rachel Queenie Rodulfo said she “denounce(d)” the statement that was “untrue in so many levels.”
“While it is correct that Reuters sent the Office an email mid-last week questions regarding the Davao police, we have to bear in mind that there are more pressing matters that the Office has to attend to, such as explaining/discussing to our people the preparation our frontline agencies are doing for the coming typhoon (Urduja), among others. In the thick of things, the Office was able to find time in responding to Reuters’ questionnaire,” she said.
According to Rodulfo, “the main concern,” however, of the story, which is, the re-assignment of Davao policemen in other parts of the country, such as Metro Manila, “needs time to be vetted.”
She said the story was “‘parochial’ in scope – not the usual ‘national’ issues that our Office can easily respond to.
“The Office therefore has to coordinate with other offices, such as the Philippine National Police and its National Capital Regional Office,” she said.
She confirmed receiving a call from the Reuters reporter Clare Baldwin on December 18, Monday night.
At that time though, she was unable to answer and only saw the missed call “since I was in Biliran – the province hardest hit by Typhoon Urduja — in the middle of the sea, carried by a small boat on the way back to Tacloban.”
She said Baldwin called her the next day, December 19, “pressuring me to give a reply literally minutes before the briefing of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was about to start.”
“I told her to just give me a day, just a day, to send her the vetted answers,” she said.
The Reuters report titled “How a secretive police squad racked up kills in Duterte’s drug war,” however, was already posted on Monday, Dec. 19.
“As a former media practitioner, I find this very disturbing. I know that a journalist has deadlines but in the interest of fair play, the other side must likewise be considerate in getting their interviewee’s side, given the abovementioned situation and considering the status of my principal,” she said.
She explained that Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque “is the alter-ego of the President.”
His statements, therefore, “carry the same weight as the statements of the President of the Republic.”
“His official views, as they say, are views of the Palace,” Rodulfo said.
“Having said these, we do not see the reason why Ms. Baldwin has to hurry at the expense of getting a verified story. There is now a quandary on her motive: Is it to arrive at the truth? Or is it simply to embarrass the Administration? You don’t threaten the government and put pressure to a government office if a request is not readily answered,” she said.
She added that the government has “nothing to hide.”
“I have even challenged Ms. Baldwin to record our conversation to see how our conversation with her transpired,” she said, noting that Baldwin’s “one-sided conduct” was “unbecoming of a journalist.”
