Palace washes hands on limiting `free speech’
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte was not behind the proposal to amend Article 3 of the 1987 Constitution or the Bill of Rights to mandate “responsible” use of free speech, his spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said on Saturday, January 20.
Roque’s clarification came after House Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro had said that the proposed inclusion of the phrase “responsible exercise” in Section 4 of the Bill of Rights came from the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat.
Castro earlier made headlines following his recommendation to amend the provision in the Bill of Rights, which reads: “No law shall be passed abridging the responsible exercise of the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, …”
Roque however said the proposed amendment made by the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat to Castro was not a “position of the President.”
He also stressed that the President, as a lawyer, believes that there was no need to push for such constitutional amendment.
“I’d like to clarify that Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat is not or does not have the rank of a Cabinet member. This means that when they spoke, they did not speak as alter ego of the President. So that is the recommendation of the Secretariat. It is not, in any way, the position of the President,” Roque said.
“The President is a lawyer. He is a fiscal. The bill of rights has remained unchanged from the 1935 Constitution to the 73 Constitution to 87 Constitution. As far as free speech is concerned, the President sees no need to amend it,” he added.
Media organizations and press freedom advocates have feared emerging threats to curtail right to free speech under Duterte’s watch, following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order to terminate online news site Rappler’s license to operate.
On Friday, January 19, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines staged a protest action at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City to stop the government’s supposed “sinister” plan to “shut down critical voices” from local media entities.
At the rally, University of the Philippines professor Danilo Arao dared Roque, who is known as an advocate of the right of the press to free speech, to quit his post as Duterte’s mouthpiece.
“I am challenging you, Harry, if you cannot stomach what you’re doing now as the spokesperson of a repressive president, you should leave and resign,” Arao said.
Roque, however, said that he would stay as Duterte’s spokesman, noting that the President has no intent to suppress the right of the press to free speech.
“I don’t have anything to prove when it comes to my advocacy on right to press freedom, most especially. Why do I countinue to be [Duterte’s] spokesman? Because I believe and I am firm that President Duterte approves and supportive of free speech,” Roque said.
“If I think, the President violates rights [to exercise freedom of speech], I will not hesitate to resign... The President has a clear conscience. The President has been in public office for almost 30 years but he never filed libel [against any media practitioners]. He knows the value of free speech,” he added.