Roque on Bato’s Claim That Duterte Punched Malacanang Wall, “Bato is a Liar!”

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque somehow implicated that Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa is a liar. This based on his statements on Friday, March 17, when he said that the latter was not telling the truth when he said that President Rodrigo Duterte punched the wall of Malacañang Palace out of anger.

Loading...

“I tell you nung nagalit si Presidente, tingnan niyo yung kamay ni Presidente, namaga. Nung nagalit siya nung naalaman niya ‘yan sinuntok niya yung wall, dingding ng Malacañang,” Dela Rosa told reporters at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Friday, shortly after the inauguration of the PNP’s one-stop shop. He was referring to the dismissal of cases against several suspected drug lords, including Kerwin Espinosa and Peter Lim.

“Tingnan niyo kamao ni Presidente namaga sa galit niya. Moro moro? ganon pa moro-Moro?. (Look at the fist of the president, it’s swollen because he was very mad. Is that a moro-moro?” the PNP chief added, noting that the president only learned about it after it was reported by media outlets. However, Spox Roque contradicted Dela Rosa’s claim.

“Ako naman po ang nagsiwalat sa Twitter at saka sa Facebook na talagang nagalit na kung todo ang Presidente noong nalaman niya iyong balitang ‘yan. Pero hanggang alas kuwatro po kaninang umaga magkasama kami ni Presidente, wala pong diperensiya ang kaniyang kamay,” he said a few hours later via a radio interview.

(I was the one who announced it via Twitter and Facebook that the President really got mad when he learned about this news. But I was with the President until 4 am this morning and there was nothing wrong with his hand.)

“At kung mayroon man, hindi ko po alam kung talagang totoong nanuntok sa dingding ‘yan. Kasi ang nangyari po, pagkatapos po ng Command Conference hindi na po kami naghiwalay (And if it did happened, I do not know if he really punched the wall because after the Command Conference, I was with him the whole time),” Roque added.



On the other hand, DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre blamed the Philippine National Police - Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) for not including Espinosa’s confession in a Senate hearing in its complaint as evidence for the latter’s involvement in the illegal drug trade. However, he added that the case will be reviewed.

Contributed by Renato Pasayao