Lawyer Harry Roque is back as President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson, replacing Salvador Panelo. (FILE PHOTO)
Lawyer Harry Roque is back as President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesperson, Senator Bong Go said Monday.
Go told reporters about the news ahead of a scheduled noontime press briefing in Malacañang. He clarified that current Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, a long-time ally, will continue to work for Duterte.
"Maaaring kailangan niya lang talaga sa panahong ito na merong tagapagsalita, separate po ng opisina, I'm guessing," Go said, a former close aide of the President.
Roque last held the position in October 2018, when he resigned to run for a seat in the House of Representatives under Luntiang Pilipinas party-list.
However, he later scrapped this plan to run for a Senate seat, against the advice of Duterte, who thought that he would not win.
Roque eventually abandoned his political ambitions for 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.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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