Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 13) — Lawyer Harry Roque is back as President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson, replacing Salvador Panelo.
Roque last held the position in October 2018, when he resigned to vie for a Senate seat. He later scrapped that plan after Duterte said he would not win the race. He then set sights to return to the House of Representatives under the Luntiang Pilipinas party-list, a comeback of sorts after his short-lived stint as the congressman for Kabayan Partylist from 2016 to 2017.
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Roque eventually abandoned his political ambitions during the 2019 polls, withdrawing his candidacy due to a heart condition.
Despite falling out of the political spotlight, Roque returned to the headlines as the lawyer of the whistleblowers in the alleged PhilHealth dialysis fund scam.
Roque, a former House Deputy Minority Leader, was known as a human rights lawyer who represented victims of the 2009 Maguindanao massacre, the kin of Palawan-based environmental advocate and journalist Gerry Ortega, who was gunned down in 2011, and the family of Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude, killed by a U.S. Marine in 2014, among others.
Roque has yet to hold a media briefing as a returning Palace spokesman.
Senator Bong Go, a former close aide of the President, told reporters about the news ahead of a scheduled noontime press briefing in Malacañang. He clarified that Panelo, a “long-time ally,” will continue to work for Duterte.
In a statement, Panelo said the President offered Roque to take the post again. Panelo will still be serving as the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel who will provide guidance on the President’s actions, issuances and statements.
Panelo vowed to work together with Roque’s office “in pursuing the national policy of the government, specially on COVID-19, and thereafter.”
