NOT SHABU HOTBED. Vice President Leni Robredo and Naga City's officials commemorate the 6th death anniversary of her late husband, interior secretary and longtime Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo. Photo by OVP

MANILA, Philippines – The City Council of Naga voiced its "indignation" over President Rodrigo Duterte's claim that their city was once a hotbed of shabu or the illegal drug methamphetamine.

"Be it resolved, as it is hereby resolved, to express in unequivocal terms the City of Naga's indignation over the statement of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte that Naga City was once a 'hotbed of shabu,' apparently uttered irresponsibly and without factual basis," the Naga City Council said in Resolution No. 2018-541.

The office of Vice President Leni Robredo, whose bailiwick is Naga, sent reporters a copy of the resolution on Saturday, August 18, the same day her hometown commemorated the 6th death anniversary of her late husband, former interior secretary and longtime Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo.

The resolution was adopted on Friday, August 17, and signed by Mayor John Bongat, Vice Mayor Nelson Legacion, City Council Secretary Gil dela Torre, and the following city councilors:

Cecilia Veluz de Asis

Gregoria Abonal

Elmer Baldemoro

Julian Lavadia Jr

Joselito del Rosario

Vidal Castillo

Ray-an Rentoy

Salvador del Castillo

Antonio Beltran

Mary Kyle Tripulca

The city leaders were reacting to this statement by Duterte in Malacañang on August 14: "I have nothing against Robredo. She's a lawyer. You have heard her talk. But I do not think she can improve on anything here. Of course, she will deny it. But you can ask the hotbed of shabu in the past years. I would not mention the name. It was Naga City."

But Naga officials denied this, arguing in their resolution that the city has implemented various anti-drug programs since 2001, when Robredo's husband Jesse was still mayor, until the current term of Bongat. (READ: HOAX: 'Robredo's legalize shabu article on Rappler')

The resolution also states Naga has been allocating "substantial" funds to help drug addicts recover from their addiction. An anti-drug abuse task force and joint command operations centers have also been established.

Naga's reintegration program has so far helped 2,891 drug users recover from their addiction.

Naga's officials then invited the President to visit their city and walk in its "safe, peaceful, and drug-free streets."

Read a full copy of Naga City Council Resolution No. 2018-541 below:

– Rappler.com</s>Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 18) — Vice President Leni Robredo is strongly protesting President Rodrigo Duterte's remark that her hometown is a "hotbed of shabu."

"Hindi natin ito ite-take sitting down, kasi unang una, hindi totoo. Kasi kung totoo ito, tayo pa iyong yuyuko para humingi ng tawad. Pero dahil hindi siya totoo, talagang magrereklamo tayo na, iyon nga, pambabastos sa lahat na taga-Naga iyon," Robredo told reporters in a chance interview in Naga City Saturday.

[Translation: "We will not take this sitting down. First of all, this is not true. Because if it were true, we would be the first ones to bow down and ask forgiveness. Since it's not true, we protest this insult to the people of Naga."]

She said the city government has sent her a "resolution of indignation" over the President's accusation.

"Pinoprotesta natin iyon (We protest) with the strongest of terms," she said, adding that it is a "huge insult" that discredits the hard work of local government officials to preserve Naga's reputation.

Officials earlier said the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency is validating reports of illegal drug operations in the city. When asked why Duterte came up with a conclusion already, Interior Officer-In-Charge Eduardo Año said the President "has his own sources."

Robredo, who has expressed willingness to lead the opposition against Duterte's policies, suspects it was part of politicking and calls it "unfair" for the administration to involve the entire city.

"Ako na lang sana iyong siraan, kasi kung ako naman iyong puntirya, ako na lang," Robredo said.

In a speech Tuesday night, Duterte said shabu has been proliferating in Robredo's hometown in Naga, as he again cast doubt on her competence as the second top government official.

"Of course she will deny it. But you can ask the hotbed of shabu in the past years, I would not mention the name… It was Naga City," Duterte said.

Robredo earlier refused to comment on the issue, saying it was not true and called on the President to focus on work, not politics.

"Ang daming problema ng bansa; asikasuhin na lang iyong problema ng bansa kaysa pulitika parati," Robredo said.

[Translation: The country has a lot of problems; let's just fix these problems instead of engaging in politics.]</s>'Jesse Robredo: His Story' is launched on the 6th death anniversary of the former interior secretary and longtime mayor of Naga City

MANILA, Philippines – Remembering the untimely death of her husband Jesse, Vice President Leni Robredo came home to Naga City on Saturday, August 18 to attend the launch of his biography.

Written by award-winning author Criselda Yabes, the book Jesse Robredo: His Story remembers the former interior secretary and longtime mayor of Naga City who was known for his "tsinelas leadership."

He passed away in a plane crash exactly 6 years ago.

Before the launch, Robredo and her daughters Jillian and Aika attended mass held at the tomb of Jesse. The book launch was held at the Museo ni Jesse, also in Naga City.

After the event, Robredo was asked by reporters whether she still asks for guidance from her late husband. She admitted that she still does – after all, Jesse was her inspiration when she ran for vice president in 2016.

"Parati naman tayong humihingi ng guidance kasi alam natin na hindi naman tayo pinapabayaan," she said. (We always ask for guidance because we know that he does not neglect us.)

Facing a president who continues to question her ability to lead and a defeated rival who continues to contest her victory in the 2016 polls, Vice President Robredo looks to Jesse now more than ever.</s>Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte thinks political dynasties are bad. But the way the prevailing political winds are blowing, it looks like a dynasty of his own might be taking shape.

Nine months away from mid-term elections that could determine the success or failure of his presidency, his daughter, Sara Duterte, is fast emerging as a power-broker who is aiming to shore up support for his ambitious policy agenda, and, say some experts and insiders, his eventual succession.

By his own admission, the 73-year-old president is flagging. On Tuesday, he lamented his uphill struggle to tackle illicit drugs and cut state corruption, predicting that he’ll “hardly make a dent” in his remaining four years in office.

During a ceremony and again at a dinner afterwards, he said he was tired, exasperated and thinking about quitting, and ended his sombre, one hour, 20 minute speech with: “I’m telling you, I’m ready to step down and retire.”

That contrasts sharply from his 40-year-old daughter, who has started maneuvering to build alliances and expand her small party in the southern Davao region into a new political juggernaut, as fissures appear in her father’s ruling PDP-Laban party.

She was instrumental in bringing together political factions to stage a dramatic July 23 ousting of divisive Duterte ally Pantaleon Alvarez as lower house speaker, replacing him with veteran Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, 71, a former president with clout and connections to ensure support for Duterte and his agenda.

The move was helped by a relationship developing between Sara Duterte and Imee Marcos, 62, a provincial governor and key figure in the still-influential family of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for two decades before being ousted in a 1986 uprising.

The two women posed together for pictures last week, each with one hand doing Duterte’s trademark clenched fist, and making a “V” sign synonymous with the rule of Marcos with the other.

Rodrigo Duterte’s rise has been a boon for the Marcos family. Imee Marcos frequently attends his official events and in 2016, Duterte granted her longstanding wish for her father to be buried with military honours at a Manila heroes’ cemetery.

Duterte also said last week that if he steps down, her brother, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, a former senator better known as “Bongbong”, would have been a capable replacement for him.

Marcos Jr came a close second to Leni Robredo, a rival of Duterte, in the 2016 vice presidential election, but he has challenged the result in the Supreme Court.

Richard Heydarian, an author, columnist and academic who specialises in politics, said the Marcos family wanted to stay relevant nationally and in a political culture where loyalties easily shift, Sara Duterte was now widely seen as a figure worth rallying behind.

“People around (Rodrigo) Duterte are looking for a new centre of gravity. They see signs of an exhausted president and see there could be some kind of succession that can protect their interests,” he said.

“He has a very shallow network of politicians, he’s not at his peak. He just has to hold on as long as he can.”

Duterte acknowledges that, and on Tuesday said he can’t resign because a constitutional succession would mean handing power to opposition leader and vice president Robredo, who was elected separately. He said Robredo isn’t up to the job – which she refutes – and he’d prefer a junta takes over.

Duterte’s relationship with daughter Sara has however often appeared rocky and she has portrayed herself as his reluctant successor as mayor of Davao City.

Like her father, she is feared and respected, and known for being blunt, unpredictable and for openly trading barbs with the president.

Despite that, few doubt her loyalty to him. Although she denies being interested, she and other Duterte allies, including his spokesman, his special assistant and his former police chief, are tipped to run for the 24-seat Senate in 2019, as is Imee Marcos.

That could be a game-changer for the president, who has built a strong majority in the House of Representatives but needs control of the upper house to deliver on his promises.

Among a raft of plans, he wants to redraft the constitution and deliver his centrepiece economic policy, a $180 billion infrastructure spree designed to modernise the country, spur spending, create jobs and lure investment.

“Now is the chance to further consolidate power by controlling both houses of congress and the local government units so all of us can we move forward in cadence,” said a member of a nine-party alliance formed by Sara Duterte last week.

He requested anonymity, saying only Sara Duterte could speak about the alliance.

“The goal is, fill the Senate with people who can help … We don’t want people who will only obstruct his plans.”

Opposition lawmaker Antonio Tinio said Rodrigo Duterte was essentially a local politician thrust into the presidency and needed national level allies.

“Hence, his alliance with the Marcoses and Gloria Arroyo,” he said.

Tinio is sceptical about Duterte’s talk of retirement and is among many opponents who suspect he’ll try to continue beyond his permitted single six-year term – an idea Duterte this week said was idiotic.

Plan B, Tinio said, was his daughter succeeding him.

“If efforts to extend the term of President Duterte through charter change fail, it’s very likely that the Dutertes’ Davao formula for dynastic succession will prevail,” he said.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>Marcos urges Duterte not to resign, Robredo’s lawyer insists VP is qualified

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte may step down if former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. were to be successful in challenging his 2016 vice presidential election loss, said the chief executive’s spokesman on Thursday, August 16.

Having entered office in 2016, Duterte’s presidential term ends in June 2022, but he has many times talked about quitting.

He recently said Tuesday, August 14 that he was “ready to go” as he spoke about his frustration with the country’s illegal drug situation.

Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said at a press briefing on Thursday that Duterte had a “real, genuine wish to step down” if a qualified leader like Marcos was up for the job.

He said that Duterte saw Marcos as “one of the better-qualified leaders to succeed him.”

“If there’s development and [Marcos] will win the protest and he becomes the vice president, yes, [Duterte] will make true his word,” said Roque.

The president has expressed issue before with having to turn over his presidency to Vice President Leni Robredo who was not Duterte’s choice for the country’s second-highest post.

Leading the opposition Liberal Party, Robredo narrowly defeated Marcos in a separate election in 2016. Robredo took 35.1 percent of the votes, while the former senator took 34.6 percent.

But Marcos has alleged fraud on voting counts, prompting the Supreme Court to order a recount which has been in the process since April. The process can take several years.

Marcos, who represents the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party which was founded by his father and Philippine dictator who ruled the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, thanked Duterte but said he did not want the president to leave office.

“I urge him not to leave the presidency as our people still need him for the better of our lives and our country,” said Marcos a statement.

On Friday, August 17, Robredo’s lawyer Romulo Macalintal said that Robredo was qualified to serve as president and should be given fair consideration.

“Yes, Idol President, VP is qualified to be president because her qualifications are just the same qualifications you possess as required of a president under the constitution,” said Macalintal in a statement.

Responding to Duterte’s doubts over Robredo’s competence, Macalintal said that Robredo further deserves the same opportunity to demonstrate her abilities to the nation’s problems.

Macalintal added, “Hence, VP Robredo deserves the right to prove her qualifications and abilities to be president in her own style and approach on current problems of the country while you take a break and take that much-needed rest.”</s>President Rodrigo Duterte would likely step down to give way to the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos if the latter won a bruising electoral challenge to the vice presidency, his spokesman said Thursday.

The announcement came after Duterte said in at least two speeches this week that he was tired and ready to quit, exasperated by corruption in government and his failure to end the drug menace in the country.

Duterte however is prone to say things that his officials later walk back. And true enough, Duterte later qualified his statement by saying that he would step down only if Marcos Jr., known here as Bongbong, won his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

“What he actually said is a real statement of exasperation and a genuine wish to step down if there’s a better leader or if there’s a qualified leader to take over,” Roque told reporters.

“And he has said that he thinks Senator Bongbong Marcos is one of the better qualified leaders to succeed him. If there’s development and he will win the protest and he becomes vice president, yes, he will make true his word,” Roque said.

Marcos Jr is contesting the 2016 vice presidential win of lawyer Robredo, a former member of congress and the highest opposition member in government. In the Philippines, the President and Vice President are elected separately.

Duterte had earlier named Robredo as a member of his cabinet, but later removed her. She had earlier expressed views against Duterte’s drugs war that has left thousands of mainly poor Filipinos dead.

Duterte in a speech before a group of Philippine broadcasters on Tuesday bluntly said that Robredo did not have the capability to lead the Southeast Asian country.

“I think deep in my heart, if you follow the succession and Robredo takes over, she won’t be able to handle it,” Duterte said, adding that he would prefer Marcos Jr anytime.

Duterte is a known supporter of the Marcoses, whose patriarch led the country for two decades, much of it under dictatorship that had left about 3,200 dead. Marcos was also believed to have plundered up to $10 billion from government coffers, plunging the country into a deep economic hole.

Marcos was toppled by a people power uprising in 1986, sending him and his family into exile in Hawaii where he died three years later.

But his widow, Imelda, and three children were later allowed to return home, where they have regained political clout. Daughter Imee is the governor of Ilocos Norte province, the family bailiwick, and Imelda is its congressional representative.

Marcos Jr., himself a former senator, however failed in his bid for the vice presidency, a slot that would have put him a hair’s breadth away from the highest office in the land.

One of Duterte’s first acts as president was to allow the transfer of Marcos’ remains to a heroes’ cemetery in Manila, which four previous presidents had strongly rejected. He had also publicly praised the Marcoses for helping him win the presidency by donating campaign funds.

In a brief statement Thursday, Marcos Jr thanked Duterte for expressing confidence in him, but said he should not quit as the “country and our people need you.”

“I thank the president for his faith in my abilities,” Marcos Jr. said. “But I urge him not to leave the presidency as our people still need him for the betterment of our lives and our country.”

The continuing growth of the death toll in Duterte’s drug war has served to chip away at his popularity.

On Thursday, thousands of activists, students, church workers and political opponents marched in northern Manila streets to commemorate the first death anniversary of Kian Loyd delos Santos, a 17-year-old student mistakenly slain by cops carrying out Duterte’s drug war last year.

They lit candles and offered prayers for delos Santos, as well as other children who have been killed in the drug war.

His gruesome death had galvanized opposition to the drug war, forcing Duterte to temporarily suspend the police operations. But he subsequently allowed them to continue after public anger had appeared to simmer down.

“The death anniversary is significant because this incident led to the President’s clarification on his official pronouncement on the drug war – he will support the police if the killing is legal, he will prosecute the police if the killing is illegal,” spokesman Roque said.

“It’s a warning to all policemen to make sure that they use force when there is absolute necessity and when it is proportional, otherwise, they will be prosecuted,” he said.

 

 Felipe Villamor in Manila and Dennis Jay Santos in Davao City contributed to this report.</s>MANILA
• Nine months away from mid-term elections that could determine the success or failure of Mr Rodrigo Duterte's presidency, his daughter, Ms Sara Duterte, is fast emerging as a power broker who is aiming to shore up support for his ambitious policy agenda, and, some experts and insiders say, his eventual succession.

By his own admission, the 73-year-old President is flagging. On Tuesday, he lamented his uphill struggle to tackle illicit drugs and cut state corruption, predicting that he'll "hardly make a dent" in his remaining four years in office. During a ceremony and again at a dinner afterwards, he said he was tired, exasperated and thinking about quitting.

That contrasts sharply from his 40-year-old daughter, who has started manoeuvring to build alliances and expand her small party in the southern Davao region into a new political juggernaut, as fissures appear in her father's ruling PDP-Laban party.

She was instrumental in bringing together political factions to stage a dramatic July 23 ousting of divisive Duterte ally Pantaleon Alvarez as Lower House Speaker, replacing him with veteran Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, 71, a former president with clout and connections to ensure support for Mr Duterte and his agenda.

The move was helped by a relationship developing between Ms Sara Duterte and Ms Imee Marcos, 62, a provincial governor and key figure in the still influential family of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for two decades before being ousted in a 1986 uprising.

The two women posed together for pictures last week, each with one hand doing Mr Duterte's trademark clenched fist, and making a "V" sign synonymous with the rule of Mr Marcos with the other.

Mr Duterte also said last week that if he steps down, Ms Marcos' brother and former senator, Mr Ferdinand Marcos Jr, would have been a capable replacement for him.

People around (Rodrigo) Duterte are looking for a new centre of gravity. They see signs of an exhausted president and see there could be some kind of succession that can protect their interests. He has a very shallow network of politicians, he's not at his peak. He just has to hold on as long as he can. DR RICHARD HEYDARIAN, an academic who studies politics, on the implications of Mr Duterte's waning support.

Mr Marcos Jr came a close second to Mr Duterte's rival in the 2016 vice-presidential election, Ms Leni Robredo. But Mr Marcos Jr has challenged the result in court.

Dr Richard Heydarian, an author, columnist and academic who specialises in politics, said the Marcos family wanted to stay relevant nationally and in a political culture where loyalties easily shift, Ms Duterte was now widely seen as a figure worth rallying behind.

"People around (Rodrigo) Duterte are looking for a new centre of gravity. They see signs of an exhausted president and see there could be some kind of succession that can protect their interests," he said. "He has a very shallow network of politicians, he's not at his peak. He just has to hold on as long as he can."

Mr Duterte acknowledges that, and on Tuesday said he can't resign because a constitutional succession would mean handing power to opposition leader and Vice-President Robredo, who was elected separately.

Mr Duterte's relationship with daughter Sara has, however, often appeared rocky and she has portrayed herself as his reluctant successor as Mayor of Davao City. Despite that, few doubt her loyalty to him. Although she denies being interested, she and other Duterte allies, including his spokesman, his special assistant and his former police chief, are tipped to run for the 24-seat Senate in 2019, as is Ms Marcos.

That could be a game-changer for the President, who has built a strong majority in the House of Representatives but needs control of the Upper House to deliver on his promises.

Among a raft of plans, he wants to redraft the Constitution and deliver his centrepiece economic policy, a US$180 billion (S$247 billion) infrastructure spree designed to modernise the country, spur spending, create jobs and lure investment.

"Now is the chance to further consolidate power by controlling both houses of congress and the local government units so all of us can we move forward in cadence," said a member of a nine-party alliance formed by Ms Duterte last week, who requested anonymity. "The goal is, fill the Senate with people who can help... We don't want people who will only obstruct his plans."</s>MANILA—For 15 years, Harry Roque worked as a human rights lawyer in the Philippines, building a name for himself and the organization he founded by teaching law in Manila and taking on several high-profile cases. He represented families of the 58 victims, many of them journalists, of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, which the Committee to Protect Journalists cites as the single deadliest event ever for the profession; he represented Filipina “comfort women” forced into brothels under Japanese occupation during World War II; he went head-to-head with former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s government over its declaration of a state of emergency.

These days, Roque steps up to the podium three times a week as the official spokesman for and most visible public defender of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, a blunt talker who has repeatedly attacked the free press, boasted about personally shooting people when he was a mayor and is best known internationally for leading a brutal extrajudicial drug war. Duterte, whose brazenness sometimes draws comparisons to Donald Trump, is one of a growing crop of authoritarian leaders around the world who reject or downplay human rights in favor of an aggressive, take-no-prisoners form of nationalism—and Roque is in many ways the physical embodiment of how many ostensible professionals have been seduced by the trend.

If Duterte is Trump in this analogy, Roque is his Sarah Huckabee Sanders: Since starting the job last November, Roque, 51, has been tasked with explaining his boss’ often outspoken comments and the administration’s deadly actions, many of which are seemingly at odds with the issues and values Roque previously spent his career working on. “It’s a completely different world for me,” Roque told me and a group of international journalists in Manila last month. Like White House press secretary Huckabee Sanders, Roque occupies a high-profile, minefield-filled position in the Philippines’ political sphere. The two jobs are similar under any circumstances, given the striking resemblance between the former American colony’s political structure and that of the United States itself—but they are especially so today, given the temperamental parallels between the two presidents who lead their respective countries.

Duterte, like Trump, cuts a controversial profile in his home country and abroad. He frequently attacks the “fake news” media and is fighting a very public battle with the online news outlet Rappler, which he banned from attending any presidential events. He is also known for his frequent indelicate comments and inability to stick to a script: He once said former U.S. President Barack Obama could “go to hell” and referred to Pope Francis as a “son of a whore” for snarling Manila traffic during his papal visit. Duterte and Trump also seem to have a strong rapport—a “great relationship,” as the U.S. president has put it. Trump also told Duterte in a 2017 phone call that he was “doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem.”

Roque’s rationale in signing up as Duterte’s spokesman also bears a striking resemblance to what some members of Trump’s administration have said: that they hoped to mitigate their boss’ behavior from the inside. Announcing that his position on human rights “has not changed,” Roque said last fall that he had “carefully” considered the job offer and hoped to sway Duterte to take a more humane strategy for the drug war. “By taking this position, I hope to be able to advise the president directly regarding the manner and methods he has used to tackle the problem of drugs,” Roque said then.

“The similarity is eerie. Two jobs that involve putting a publicly acceptable face to presidents that are adept at breaking every norm of professional and personal behavior,” says Barry Gutierrez, a former colleague of Roque’s at the University of the Philippines law school who worked with him on the case against Arroyo (and who now serves as the spokesman for Vice President Leni Robredo, an opposition politician).

In Roque’s case, however, not only is the contrast between his previous work in human rights law and his current work for Duterte starker, but the stakes are graver. Huckabee Sanders might need to defend some extraordinary statements from the president she serves in Washington, but she has never had to speak on behalf of a deadly drug war that has resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings. The Philippine president has earned censure from international human rights groups for the campaign, with Human Rights Watch estimating that the death toll reached 12,000 earlier this year. In public speeches, Duterte has repeatedly defended his drug war’s harsh tactics: “Your concern is human rights,” he said last month. “Mine is human lives.”

“The greater tragedy in Harry’s case is that he used to be one of the good guys,” Gutierrez says, “but now he works for a real-life supervillain.”

Roque insists he discusses his differences of opinion with his boss—but if that’s the case, it’s hard to see how his words have had much effect. In his previous work, Roque represented Filipino fishermen in a South China Sea dispute; Duterte has cozied up to China in recent years. Roque took on press freedom cases; Duterte tries to shut down media outlets he doesn’t like. Roque took on human rights cases; Duterte has come under fire for disregarding the rule of law in the drug war. Roque was admitted to the International Criminal Court in 2005; Duterte pulled the Philippines out of the ICC earlier this year after it opened a human rights investigation into his drug war.

Asked in February about the discrepancy between his previous work and the policies of the president he represents, Roque had changed his tone: “I speak for the president now. In this capacity, I have no personal opinions.”

Although Roque grew up in the Philippines, he got his undergraduate education in the United States, at the University of Michigan. The same year he finished, 1986, a popular revolution toppled Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Not wanting to miss out, Roque was inspired to return to his home country and attend law school. In 2003, he founded his human rights law organization, Centerlaw.

Ironically, it was through Roque’s press freedom work that he first met Duterte: They were both on the same side of a 2007 libel case in Davao City, where Duterte was mayor at the time. A radio commentator named Alex Adonis had been convicted and sent to prison after reading reports of a politician’s alleged sexual exploits on air. The politician in question was Duterte’s political rival at the time, and Duterte spoke out publicly on Adonis’ behalf. Roque was Adonis’ lawyer.

Roque ultimately came to the spokesperson job, however, by way of politics. He left his law firm in Manila to run in 2016 for a seat in the Philippine House of Representatives, which he won. But he was ousted from his party in early 2017 after a hearing in which he had aggressively questioned Senator Leila de Lima, a politician who has since been jailed for her alleged role in the drug trade, leaving him party-less—and open to other jobs.

Since assuming the spokesman role last fall, it has been a busy summer for Roque. In the span of just a few weeks, his boss referred to God as “stupid” and a “son of a bitch” (the Philippines is a deeply Catholic country), came under fire for kissing a woman on the mouth onstage at an event (she volunteered, Roque said) and then doubled down on his God comments, saying he would immediately resign his post if anyone could show him proof of God’s existence (they haven’t, and he hasn’t).

Although Duterte would hardly consider these gaffes, it falls to Roque to interpret what his boss says and do the cleanup—something Roque says he is well-equipped to do. “You have to remember, the president … before becoming a politician, was a public prosecutor himself who was prosecuting cases of murder,” Roque says. “And I was raised myself by a public prosecutor. I guess that’s why I understand how his mind works.” Roque is helped along by a once-weekly sit-down meeting with Duterte. “No sucking up, no nonsense, just to make sure I’m in sync with what’s in his mind,” he says.

Roque seems adept at channeling Duterte’s rhetoric, defending the president and his comments in blunt terms of his own. In response to a question about the God comments, Roque referred to his boss’ rhetoric against the church as “tirades” and a “series of outbursts,” noting that the issue is deeply personal for Duterte; he has said he was molested by a Catholic priest as a child in Davao. “I guess he just wanted it out of his system,” Roque says. He speaks about Duterte like one speaks about a slightly crazy uncle: He says strange things sometimes, sure, but you accept him and love him for it nonetheless.

“The thing that the media can’t seem to understand is—give [Duterte] bad press, he shouts back at you and doesn’t give up,” Roque says. “This guy doesn’t care—because he knows people like him for who he is and what he does.”

Many of Roque’s former colleagues aren’t buying the spin, however—they’re appalled by Roque’s new role. “His knowledge of human rights and international law, as well as his reputation as a legal academic, initially lent some credibility to his pronouncements as Duterte’s spokesman,” Gutierrez told me. “But the growing inconsistency between his previous positions and his current stances has left many former colleagues shaking their heads.”

Some speculate that Roque took the job because he has higher political ambitions: He is often talked about as a candidate for the Senate in next year’s midterm elections. Roque told us last month that he hasn’t decided whether he will run; he says he will consider a campaign as soon as he figures out how to finance it. Duterte has encouraged him to enter the race.

Roque’s news briefings are so similar to the White House news briefings that it’s hard to ignore the parallels. Three times a week, he stands at a podium in Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the Philippine president. Even the logo on the wall behind him—a blue oval with a photo of the palace and the phrase “Malacañang” in bold white lettering—looks familiar.

But while Sanders moderates her own news conferences, a member of the Malacañang press corps moderates Roque’s. “[Sanders] can simply shoot down any question,” Roque says, suggesting his job is more difficult. “I don’t have the privilege.” But journalists say that, whether out of tradition or because of cultural differences, the Malacañang briefings are significantly less combative than what they observe from their Washington counterparts. “American reporters are much more aggressive and pointed in [asking follow-up] questions. There’s no hesitation in sounding annoyed or disbelieving, or questioning the ‘spin’ in an official statement,” Rappler reporter Pia Ranada says. “Filipino reporters, even if they are annoyed and are not buying an official statement in the inside, tend to try to sound as neutral as possible.”

There is also the fact that Roque is representing the Philippine government to the media in an environment that international observers say is among the most hostile toward journalists. Reporters Without Borders rates the Philippines as the deadliest country for journalists in Asia, with four reporters killed in 2017 alone. TThe country also ranks 133 out of 180 on the organization’s press freedom index. An army of state-aligned online trolls—known as the “DDS,” or “Die-hard Duterte Supporters”—viciously attacks and threatens journalists critical of the president. Rappler has been the primary target: The organization’s editor-in-chief, Maria Ressa, received repeated rape and death threats for critical coverage of Duterte, and Ranada, the reporter, faces regular online threats and harassment. “Duterte’s and Roque’s rhetoric feed the threats,” Ranada told me. “In fact, the trolls often use Duterte’s and Roque’s words.”

Roque refutes the idea that this administration has been particularly harsh on the press, or that the Philippines is a particularly difficult place for journalists to do their jobs. There has been “absolutely no censorship, absolutely no libel charges,” he says. (He is correct that there have been no libel charges; as for censorship, the government has gone after Rappler over what it claims are tax and ownership issues, rather than content issues—a common tactic of authoritarian regimes.) He acknowledges that his boss is, to a certain extent, reliant on the media and his spirited engagement with it: “[Duterte] knows the value of media not only for informing the people, but for politicians and sending their messages. Don’t think this guy is oblivious to the fact that he needs the media for his political life.”

Roque also insists the government has nothing to do with the trolls who harass journalists, though he says Duterte hasn’t and won’t specifically denounce them or tell them to stop. Roque himself has come under attack from the DDS, he said, most notably for defending journalists last fall. “One week into this job, I was attacked viciously. Why? because I defended freedom of the press, I defended legitimate media,” Roque told us. “I’m living proof [DDS] is not controlled by the administration.” While there is no evidence that Duterte has directed or funded these trolls since taking office, he did hire Mocha Uson, an actress and DDS blogger, as assistant communications secretary. And an Oxford University found that during the 2016 campaign, Duterte in fact paid such bloggers to spread its messages; Duterte, in response to the study, called Oxford “a school for the stupid people.”

Despite the harsh words Duterte often has for the Malacañang Palace press corps and the media more broadly, those who regularly cover the president say Roque is a capable operator who is generally friendly and responsive to their questions and concerns. “Secretary Roque is a media-savvy person, having worked with journalists during his days as an activist lawyer and subsequently a lawmaker at the House of Representatives,” Dharel Placido, a Malacañang reporter for Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN, told me, calling Roque a “cheerful person.”

But journalists know to take his comments with a grain of salt. “I know some reporters [such as myself] have second thoughts on trusting his account of events,” Pia Ranada, the Rappler reporter Duterte banned from entering the palace, wrote in an email. “[Roque has] made a several mistakes, retracted or corrected a few statements even. We are also fully aware he is a politician with ambitions of his own.”

In our hourlong conversation with Roque in July, he seemed to make clear that he doesn’t personally view the media as “enemies of the people”—a charge Sanders repeatedly refused to repudiate during a recent news briefing. “I’ve been in media law for the longest time,” he said. “I defended media … I know my media freedom.” But later that month, when some Philippine media reported that Duterte had been treated at a hospital after his State of the Nation address, Roque was back to calling out “fake news”: “It is in fact a crime to spread this kind of news,” he said.</s>Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte could resign to make way for the son of ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos if a legal challenge to the 2016 vice presidential election is upheld.

Duterte, 73, who has often raised the possibility of stepping down, thinks Ferdinand Marcos jnr "is one of the better qualified leaders to succeed him," presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a briefing on Thursday.

If Marcos "becomes vice president, perhaps the President will make true his word that he will step down," Roque said.

Marcos won 14.1 million votes in the 2016 vice presidential race, an election that is conducted separately from the presidency in the Philippines, narrowly losing to the opposition Liberal Party candidate Leni Robredo. Marcos claims the vote was tainted by massive cheating.

Duterte has said before that he might turn over the presidency to Marcos, whose sister he credits with supporting his presidential campaign. The triggers, he said, would include a failure to deliver on his promises to crack down on narcotics, crime and corruption.
Vice President Leni Robredo protests President Rodrigo Duterte's remark that her hometown Naga City is a "hotbed of shabu."