Friday, November 3, 2017

Watch: Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Chooses Toyota Innova over BMW as Service Car (Video)

Newly appointed Presidential spokesman Harry Roque chose a Toyota Innova as his service vehicle, despite the fact he can use his own BMW sedan. In his first meeting with reporters as a cabinet member of the Duterte administration, he was asked if he is willing to comply with the president’s order not to use luxury cars. Watch video below.



“Yung aking magandang kotse po ay 5 years old. Ibig sabihin, di na ako pwede bu ng bago. So maluluma na po sa akin yung maganda kong kotse. (My beautiful car is five years old, which, means that I cannot buy a new one anymore. Therefore, my beautiful car will stay with me as it gets older.)” Harry Roque said last Thursday, November 2.

“I understand the vehicle to be assigned to a Cabinet secretary is an Innova. So I said, ‘Sure, I will use an Innova’,” He added, When asked if he will use his BMW, Roque joked that because there will now be a free car for him, he will just save it from further depreciation. He is scheduled to take his oath as Presidential spokesman on Monday.

Roque admitted that he was also offered an adviser post, but declined to give more details as he would still wait until President Duterte to formally issue his appointment papers. He emphasized that his office would be separate from the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) under Secretary Martin Andanar, but would work closely with it.



In the same event, Roque clarified his earlier statement saying that he will throw hollow blocks at President Duterte’s critics. He said it was addressed to 5.5 million followers of PCOO assistant secretary Mocha Uson. Interestingly, the question was asked by Rappler’s Pia Ranada, who is not in good terms with pro-Duterte bloggers like Mocha.



“The message I wanted to send to the DDS was I have the back of the President covered. Now, you can take it literally or figuratively. But what I meant was, since I believe in the free marketplace of ideas, stones hurled are welcomed but expect to have bigger stones thrown back at you. I think that’s the nature of the free marketplace of ideas,” Roque said.

Contributed by Renato Pasayao

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