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- Harry Roque said that there were times that he does think that the President is acting inappropriately.
- The fomer spokesperson said that the reason he defended Duterte then was because it was his job.
Former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque stated that President Rodrigo Duterte‘s playful act of kissing a Filipina overseas worker in Korea was “inappropriate.”
Roque, who was replaced by Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo as spokesperson, did an interview with comedian and host Vice Ganda in his show Gandang Gabi Vice. He was asked if there were times when he thought that the President was acting inappropriately, and he answered “Of course, there was.”
The former spokesperson then mentioned the kissing incident that happened at a meeting with the Filipino community in Seoul, South Korea last June as one of the inappropriate things he thought of. He said that he “thought he was going to die” while he witnessed it.
“I thought I was going to die… I felt that I should have run and pulled him. ‘Come here, let us go here, Mr. President.'”
When he was asked why he defended the President then, he answered that it was his job. “I believe that serving the countrymen is through serving the president, which includes defending him when he did not do anything wrong.”
It can be remembered that Roque defended the President’s actions at that time by saying that there should be no malice with the incident. “The lady has clearly expressed the view that she was honored by the kiss.”
