Roque hints at another role in DU30 admin
MANILA — Incoming presidential spokesman Harry Roque yesterday hinted at having a concurrent position in the Duterte administration after he earlier expressed his willingness to advise the president on “key human rights issues” on top of his job as mouthpiece.
Roque dropped the clues during an interview with CNN Philippines after news anchor Pinky Webb asked him how he will talk to President Rodrigo Duterte about human rights when he is not a presidential adviser.
“There’s something that secretary Bong Go and I discussed which he agreed to. It will be announced in due course,” Roque said without elaborating.
Pressed for hints of the agreement between him and Duterte, Roque told Webb: “See if I answer that you already know the answer.”
“It’s an agreement and I hope the president will announce it,” he added.
Duterte last Friday announced Roque’s new role in Malacañang during the latter’s birthday party in Davao City—confirming rumors that the firebrand leader was set to have a new point man.
Roque was given a rank of “secretary” and will replace Ernesto Abella, who had a rank of undersecretary and is a pastor by profession.
Before flying to Japan last week, Duterte said Roque’s appointment was his “personal decision.”
“I am not about to explain why I did it,” Duterte said.
Roque, a well-known human rights lawyer, earlier explained that he agreed to be Duterte’s spokesman to directly talk to the maverick leader about the government’s brutal drug war, noting that as a member of Congress, his voice was “limited.”
“I have already expressed my willingness to serve as an adviser on the matter,” he said in a statement on Saturday.