Lost on Duterte hospital visit, Roque says he thought of quitting

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said Friday he is mulling whether to stay in his job after he admitted that he did not know that President Rodrigo Duterte had gone to a hospital for some physical tests.

Roque said last Wednesday that Duterte only took the day off, only to be contradicted by the President himself in a speech on Thursday night, saying that he went to the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan City the day before for a repeat procedure.

Duterte underwent colonoscopy “which he submits to on a yearly basis," according to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea. 

Duterte, in the same speech in Malacañang on Thursday, indicated that Roque should stay in his government rather than run for senator in the May 2019 midterm elections.

Roque later said the President offered him a post that still "does not exist."

"[L]ike you, I was taken aback about the diagnostic examination. I did not lie to anyone because I simply did not know," Roque said at a news conference.

"And in my decision on whether not to run or to accept whatever the Office of the President may have I will consider the fact that in this capacity as spokesperson I must know everything about the President and I do concede that his going to that diagnostic exam was something that I did not know and I'm inclined to believe that perhaps I am not in a position to continue with this current function."

The Palace official said that he has no ill-feelings toward the President.

"Nothing at all," he said, even as he expressed concern over the people's perception of him following the incident.

"As I said it’s difficult to continue unless people believe me and now people won’t believe me because of the incident on his health," Roque said.

Roque said he will take the weekend to think things through and that he will announce his decision on October 8, three days before the start of filing of certificates of candidacy for next year's polls.

A former law professor and Kabayan party-list congressman, Roque joined the Duterte Cabinet in November last year. —LBG, GMA News