Harry Roque

heels of Mayor Sara Duterte’s initiative towards unity when she launched the movement.

But something may not appear right in this whole picture, if one entertains this alternative hypothesis.

Why would Harry Roque reach out to mainstream media at the expense of social media? And why would he begin his tenure with a threat of throwing metaphorical hollow blocks?

There are two possible sub-hypothesis that I can offer on this matter.

group that will be the recipient of the hollow block treatment but only those who would be overly and unfairly critical of the President.

On offending the DDS, one explanation would be that he was simply careless, and over-eager, and failed to take into consideration the deep animosity that exists between the DDS social media enablers and mainstream media, particularly Rappler, ABS-CBN and the His actual message was simply to invite the DDS to make an effort to understand where mainstream media was coming from, except that the way he said it ended up being patronizing towards Mocha that did not sit well with the DDS.

The other possible explanation is however more controversial, and intriguing.

Could it also be possible that the intention was that this would be a reminder to the pro-Duterte social media, some of whom are becoming exceedingly pushy? Could it be that some sectors in the President’s immediate circle are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with, if not offended by, a social media that keeps on reminding him that he owes his victory to them? Could it be that Harry the arrogance not only in mainstream media but also in social media?

Since the President is not running for re-election, he is not interested at all in winning for himself. However, he would need to enable a broad coalition of politicians in 2019, something which would require him to reach out to persons who may be unpalatable to the DDS, most of whom have adversarial opinions against Congress. Could this be the reason why the story arc is now about reaching out to the mainstream media, reconciling with the Church, and unifying political allies through the

movement? What I offer here are alternative explanations to the phenomenon of Harry Roque. I could be wrong.

But then again, what if one of these, more so the alternative hypothesis I offered, is right?