Editing Bill of Rights not Duterte’s idea, says Roque

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte saw no need to amend the free speech provision in the Bill of Rights, as proposed by a little-known presidential advisory committee, according to his spokesperson Harry Roque.

Roque distanced the President from a proposal of the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) secretariat to amend the Bill of Rights so that only “responsible exercise” of freedom of speech would be protected under a proposed new Constitution.

Roque did not explain who authorized the PHRC secretariat to make the recommendation to the House of Representatives.

Not binding to Du30

“Unless it comes from a member of the Cabinet, who is an alter-ego of the President, their recommendations cannot bind the President,” Roque said in a press briefing in Aklan.

Asked if the secretariat could submit a recommendation to Congress without the knowledge of the PHRC, headed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Roque replied that this was what seemed to have happened.

“They apparently did. Unless it was ES [Medialdea] who submitted it, they can’t bind the President,” Roque said.

“The President is a lawyer. He is a fiscal [prosecutor]. The Bill of Rights remains unchanged from the 1935 Constitution to the ’73 Constitution to ’87 Constitution,” said Roque, himself a lawyer who taught constitutional law at the University of the Philippines.

Arroyo creation

“As far as free speech is concerned, the President sees no need to amend it,” he said, adding that the the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) was just an advisory body created by administrative order.

The PHRC was created by former President Gloria Arroyo through Administrative Order No. 163 in December 2006.

The secretariat’s recommendation to amend the free speech provision in the Bill of Rights emerged after a House subcommittee carried the proposal and cited the recommendation of the PHRC secretariat last October.

Roque said he believed Mr. Duterte supported press freedom, as shown by the fact that he had never filed a libel case against any media practitioner while in public office.