Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque defended President Duterte following reports that his remarks were one of the reasons why vaccination centers across Metro Manila were mobbed ahead of the two-week lockdown.
Reacting to the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant locally, Duterte in late July said he wanted the police to bar people who are unvaccinated from leaving their homes.
Last week, crowds flocked to vaccination sites that were unprepared to handle long queues of people wanted to get inoculated.
For Roque, however, it wasn’t the president to be blamed.
“Wala pong pagkakamali ang ating Presidente sa kanyang pananalita at kung paniniwalaan natin ang mga surveys, ano, the President remains to be the best communicator and the best positive communicator in the country today,” Roque said on Monday, Aug. 9.
Among communication professionals, however, said that the president is the “best communicator” holds little merit.
“As a faculty member of Ateneo’s Department of Communication, please allow me to respond to Harry Roque and say HELL NO, HE [Duterte] IS NOT,” a science communication practitioner said in a tweet.
“I disagree with Harry Roque. If Duterte is the ‘best communicator’, then why are you still employed Harry?” a communication professor and journalist shared the same sentiment as de Leon.
“Good communicators do NOT need a spokesperson to clarify what they said the next day,” former Presidential Communications Operations Office Associate Secretary JR Santiago said in a tweet.
Other social media users also disagreed with Roque’s statement as they noted the profanities and gibberish uttered by the chief executive in his public addresses.
“Napakadelusyunal ng administrasyong to. Tangama, paano naging best communicator yung puro mura at nagmamumble pag nagsasalita??” a Twitter user wrote.
Meanwhile, a social media user shared a compilation of videos of Duterte throwing curses.
Duterte, “the best communicator” pic.twitter.com/pDu1oJWgwe
— Kuya Isko #RegistertoVote (@kuyaaisko) August 9, 2021
“If this is the best, my god, how does the worst sound like?!” a Twitter user questioned Roque’s statement.
Another social media user shared a video of Duterte imitating the sound of a gun. It is a snippet from Duterte’s late-night talk on April 23, 2020, where he criticized the New People’s Army for its continued attacks against government forces.
According to Roque, Duterte is the best communicator.
Exhibit A: pic.twitter.com/hpgqh94VXt— Don RB (@donthebasher) August 9, 2021
A cartoonist also joined the discussion through his illustration.
bEsT comMuNicaToR #satire pic.twitter.com/9im0aXux97
— Cartoonist ZACH (@cartoonistzach) August 9, 2021
Meanwhile, award-winning writer Jerry Gracio shared a compilation of Duterte’s speech arranged like a poem.
