Nothing wrong with state media airing of party events — Palace

THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE sees nothing wrong with state television’s airing of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s meeting with his partymates and another political party’s event supporting the possible presidential bid of his daughter.

The People’s Television Network (PTV) covered the events because these were newsworthy, presidential spokesman Herminio L. Roque, Jr. told a televised news briefing on Thursday.

“Whenever it’s newsworthy, it’s covered,” he said. “Otherwise, they will get outscooped. PTV is still a news agency,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.

The government media on Wednesday aired the meeting of PDP-Laban, which Mr. Duterte heads. The two-hour meeting showed the President’s political allies urging him to run for vice president next year for continuity.

The six-year term of Mr. Duterte, who is barred by law from running for reelection is ending next year.

PTV also aired the press conference of the People’s Reform Party, which announced its support for Davao City Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte-Carpio. Mr. Roque, a party member, attended the meeting.

“The President has always been the chairman of PDP-Laban,” Mr. Roque said. “There’s no way to separate the political personality of the President from his functions.”

During the meeting, Mr. Duterte said he was seriously thinking about running for vice president. He added that he would become inutile as vice president if his successor was not an ally.

Political observers and constitutional experts have said a Duterte vice presidency violates the spirit of the post-dictatorship Constitution.

The late President Corazon C. Aquino oversaw the drafting of the basic law that limited the powers of the presidency and re-established the bicameral Congress, which her predecessor, the late dictator

Ferdinand E. Marcos, abolished.

Mr. Marcos and his family were forced into exile in the

US after he was ousted by a popular street uprising in 1986.

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