Between Roque and the easy way out
The president's spokesman is quick to blame, slow to take responsibility
It is a matter of course that presidential spokesperson Harry Roque will make excuses for the president — that, and, apparently, attacking the vice president, is his job — what is disappointing is his refusal to take responsibility for quarantine violations that he has in the past been berating the public for.
Early in this longest lockdown in the world, Roque was among the first to peddle the "pasaway" narrative to blame the public and their supposed lack of discipline for the continued spread of the novel coronavirus.
He has also been quick to excuse himself from the same narrative in the three times that the the public knows about that he excepted himself from guidelines like only going out for essential supplies.
The first, and the silliest, was his taking time out to pose with dolphins at Ocean Adventure in Subic. His cetacean escapade exposed on social media, the Palace spokesman said he had not been taking any breaks since the pandemic started and, anyway, the ocean park was near Bataan, where he has a business venture.
Sadly, nobody in the Posing With Marine Mammals During a Pandemic community supported him and he was forced to plead that, like the millions of us who have been stuck at home and slowly developing traumas that will take years to address but did not feel the need to take a side trip to see some sea creatures, only human.
While Luzon was grappling with a typhoon that had brought flooding to the Cagayan Valley not seen in decades, Roque was again caught singing along to the band at a Baguio City bar.
Called out on it, he said he was surprised that his singing spread on social media — again saying that he had been working hard and deserved a break — before telling everyone to just focus on typhoon relief as if we were the ones who thought it would be a good idea to go out for beers and a bit of a song while people were drowning in floodwaters.
RELATED: Fisherfolk group on Roque's singing after 'Ulysses': 'No time to unwind'
His latest gaffe, attending a tourism event and speaking before crowds in Cebu despite prohibitions on mass gatherings and making the wrong-headed excuse that there is n harm done since people weren't crowding indoors, at least, is the least entertaining and the most pathetic.
Criticized for it, the president's mouthpiece, a man notable only because he speaks for the president and who has been living on the the residual power of that position, argued weakly that he had no control over the event and that the local government unit is to blame for the crowds, including the smaller one that the posed for a selfie with.
It has never been a secret that Roque is ambitious — while I was a young reporter covering the Senate, people were already jokingly referring to him as "Senator Roque" and he only gave way in the 2019 elections when it was obvious that his cheerleading for the president and for Mocha Uson was not enough for him to get a seat at the Senate.
It is also rather obvious that his trips to the provinces — to Boracay and to Bohol, and now Cebu — are partly for him to get an early start on the campaign trail. His pathetic attempts at trending with his stupid hashtags — and their subsequent failure because virality depends a lot on spontaneity — make these trips even more transparent.
Roque — like Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano, whom I have lived long enough to watch change positions on congressional inquiries twice and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who has written the office to threaten us with legal action and to discuss a lawyer's farts — is among the people I looked up to when I was younger who have managed to disappoint me for their lack of consistency.
READ: Infirmities that rights expert flagged in Human Security Act also in anti-terrorism bill
There is some gratification in knowing that while has been successful at selling his principles, he is having harder time at selling himself.
I have, now that I am much older, very few bare minimums (minimae?) for people I will consider voting for. The ability to take responsibility for their actions is one of those non-negotiables.
Roque may be skilled at excusing himself but I, and many others, will not forget that he took the easy way out for his adult decisions.
RELATED: Roque refuses call to apologize to CNN reporter after press briefing rant
Three specials from this week as we try to tread the thin line between reporting on events that affect people’s lives while not overly offending others:
Xave Gregorio looks into how community journalists are coping with the pandemic — and, let’s be honest, the denial of ABS-CBN’s application for a new franchise — in “Pandemic-battered community press tries to rebuild from the ashes”.
Franco Luna keeps us updated on a family that went viral earlier this year for six of them having PWD cards that the Quezon City government has since said are spurious. It seems a little vindictive, but Franco is a PWD and the issue of people getting cards just for the discounts has been a problem that the community has been complaining about. Read it here: “Whatever happened to: Family with spurious PWD cards”
Bella Perez-Rubio writes about how the Senate has assured everyone that it will be quick to exercise oversight on the implementation of the anti-terrorism bill against how it has actually acted on past allegations of abuse by state forces in “Amid promised oversight of anti-terror law, how has the Senate probed past abuses?”