Roque bullying party so ‘dummy’ can replace him, Salo claims

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque answers question in a briefing held at Malacañang New Executive bldg, November 6, 2017. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque is allegedly “bullying” the Kabayan party-list into allowing his chief-of-staff to take over his soon-to-be-vacated seat at the House of Representatives, Rep. Ron Salo claimed on Monday.

According to Salo’s statement, Roque’s “camp” supposedly called the group’s former secretary-general Victor Caguimbal, who signed his nomination papers for the 2016 elections, to push for the nomination of his chief-of-staff and human rights lawyer Romel Bagares as his replacement.

Roque’s “camp” allegedly “threatened to use his influence, and the power and resources of his office as Presidential Spokesperson, to obstruct the proclamation” of lawyer Ciriaco Calalang as the new Kabayan Party-list Representative.

Calalang was the third nominee in the list submitted to the Commission on Elections, which usually makes him the next in the line of succession after Roque and Salo. Meanwhile, Bagares was supposedly not even a member of the party-list group.

Rep. Ron Salo and Ciriaco Calalang. Photo sourced from Salo’s Twitter account.

In his statement, Salo maintained that Calalang is Roque’s legal successor under the Party-list Law and that the group would “abide by the rule of law, not by the rules of Roque that only serves his personal interests.”

“Roque’s obtrusive plan to cling on to his congressional seat through his dummy Bagares, makes us wonder why is he very much interested in the congressional seat when the podium he holds there at Malacañang is clearly a more powerful position?” Salo said.

“Kabayan Party-list refuses to and will not be bullied by Harry Roque,” he added.

Roque and Bagares did not reply to the Inquirer’s requests for comment.

As the first and second nominees, Roque and Salo occupied the two seats won by the group in the May 2016 elections.

But, the two have bickered since December after a “board of trustees” backed by Salo began investigating Roque for his sexually-charged inquiry into the love life of Senator Leila de Lima.

In turn, Roque brought up Salo’s alleged involvement in the controversial P3.8-billion license plate deal under the Aquino administration, as corporate secretary of the supplier.

Roque also told INQUIRER.net that “obviously, [Salo] is delirious because I don’t know what power and influence he is referring to.”

Salo said the “board of trustees” expelled Roque from the party-list group in January, while Roque said a “party congress” ousted Salo in February.

President Rodrigo Duterte on Oct. 27 announced his selection of Roque, a human rights lawyer prior to his election, as his spokesperson “because we both have naughty mouths.” With a report from Nestor Corrales