Harry Roque not invited to Palace meet between Aquino and kin of massacre victims

Malacañang said on Saturday lawyer Harry Roque was not invited to last Friday’s meeting between President Benigno Aquino III and the families of the victims of the Maguindanao massacre, some of whom he was representing.

But the Palace made it clear that it had nothing to do with Roque’s absence from the meeting, saying it was the families led by Maguindanao Governor Esmael “Toto” Mangudadatu who drew up the guest list.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte made the disclosure when asked to react on Roque’s comment that he did not want to go to the Palace for the Friday meeting with President Aquino because he did not want to see presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, whom he had engaged in a word war last week.

Roque had accused Lacierda and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo of meddling in the Maguindanao massacre case by backing massacre suspect Zaldy Ampatuan as a possible state witness in the case.

Lacierda and Robredo had denied Roque’s claim, with the presidential spokesperson angrily telling the media that the lawyer just needed media attention and was relying on a “polluted” source.

Interviewed over state-run dzRB radio, Valte said she knew that Roque was not invited to the gathering in the Palace.

“And if he did not want to go there, why was he asking on the day itself if he were invited. Maybe that is not a behavior of a person who did not want to go because he did not want to see someone there,” Valte said.

Asked why Roque was not invited, she said that Mangudadatu could best answer that. She said the Maguindanao governor was the one who sought the meeting with the President and thus, the former was in charge of making the invitations.

“Although I remember during the presidential campaign, when the President met with some of the families of the massacre, Myrna Reblando—who is a client of Atty. Harry Roque—was there but not Atty. Roque,” she also said.

Valte also defended Lacierda’s reactions to Roque’s allegations against him, saying her boss did so because she said it was unfair the way the lawyer had politicized the issue.

“I think anyone who has been accused that way will really react and Secretary Lacierda did not lose his cool but one cannot help but be emotional and passionate in answering the allegations that are nothing but lies made (by Roque),” she said.

Valte said that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and even lawyer Howie Calleja, Ampatuan’s lawyers, denied the allegations of Roque.

“Maybe it’s about time that we stop paying attention to these lies,” she added.