Brig. Gen. Lope Dagoy, chief of the Presidential Security Group (File photo by NESTOR CORRALES / INQUIRER.net)
Brig. Gen. Lopez Dagoy, the commander of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), on Wednesday said he would not apologize to Rappler after his remark that reporter Pia Rañada should be thankful she had not been harmed despite her “insulting” behavior when a PSG enlisted man barred her from entering Malacañang.
On Tuesday morning, Rañada was briefly barred from entering Malacañang by Cpl. Marc Anthony Cempron, who was stationed at Gate 2.
Cempron said there was an instruction from the “higher ups” that she would no longer be allowed to enter the Palace premises.
Ranada, together with another reporter, persistently asked Cempron why she was being barred from entering. But Cempron only said it was an order from “higher ups,” whom he was not able to identify.
Rañada took a video of the incident.
She then texted Media Relations Undersecretary Mia Reyes. After a few minutes, another PSG member showed up at the guardhouse to tell Ranada that the order has been clarified.
Later, the PSG commander made this remark on the incident in an interview with Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson: “Huwag ninyo ganunin. Sumusunod sa orders lang ’yan. Pasalamat kayo hindi kayo sinaktan sa pagbabastos na ginawa niyo.”
[Don’t do that to him. He was just following orders. Be thankful he did not harm you because of the rudeness you showed.]
Rappler denounced Dagoy’s statement, saying it was “unbecoming of an officer.”
But Dagoy said he would not apologize to Rappler.
“You see how selective they are in finding fault at me without giving the people the whole picture of the incident,” Dagoy said in a statement.
Dagoy said he was challenging “Rappler that they present the whole video to the public and let them decide who between us made the grievous mistake on what transpired during the incident.”
“Imagine, namili lang ng portion of the incident then project me already as the bad guy. Tama ba yan? Ganyan na ba ang standard ng media investigation ng Rappler?” he said.
[Imagine, they just selected a portion of the incident and then project me already as the bad guy. Is that right? Is that Rappler’s standard of media investigation?]
“Me to apologize? In their dreams! Sila ang mag-apologize sa sundalo ko,” he added.
[They should be the ones to apologize to my soldier.] /atm