Lagman to Roque: You’re a mouthpiece, not justice secretary

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/RYAN LEAGOGO

A mouthpiece, not an adviser.

This was the stern reminder of opposition lawmaker, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, to newly appointed presidential spokesperson Harry Roque of his new government assignment after the latter said he would also use his new designation to “advise” President Rodrigo Duterte on human rights issues and concerns.

In a statement, Lagman said Roque was already “expanding his turf as incoming presidential spokesman even before he officially assumes office.”

Lagman said it was the justice secretary’s role, and not the spokesperson’s, to advise the President on human rights issues.

“The presidential spokesman is the President’s alter ego after the fact, not a precursor of the fact… According to Roque, he accepted the position of spokesman in order to advise the President on human rights issues, which is the jurisdiction of the secretary of justice,” Lagman said.

“The presidential spokesman is the President’s mouthpiece, not his volunteer adviser on human rights and other policy concerns,” he said.

The Inquirer tried to get Roque’s reaction, but he has yet to respond as of this writing.

“The role of a spokesman is to incant, elaborate or moderate the President’s pronouncements, not to mold the Chief Executive’s statements beforehand,” Lagman said.

Lagman also said that a presidential spokesperson “reports the President’s statements, but does not advise his principal on what to say.”

“One cannot be a spokesman and an adviser at the same time because an advice may not be heeded, and such rejection or contrary opinion of the President must be articulated by the spokesman,” the veteran lawmaker said.

Lagman also referred to Executive Order No. 4, dated July 10, 2010, or “Reorganizing and Renaming the Office of the Press Secretary,” as well as other executive issuances for the legal, specific explanation of the role of a presidential spokesperson.

He said none of these executive fiats had given a “grant of authority to the latter to advise the President on matters other than the ‘messaging system’ and ‘communication strategy’ of the Office of the President.”

In a separate statement, the organization of human rights lawyers that Roque founded in 2003, said it had continued to seek justice for the victims of the Duterte administration’s bloody war against illegal drugs.

The group said its members “remained grateful” to Roque “for the many years of service and mentorship in Centerlaw.”

“As he undertakes a new and challenging endeavor as presidential spokesperson, we trust that he will be imbued with the same commitment to human rights as he has espoused in his years at Centerlaw,” the group said.