Kabayan Party-list Rep. Harry Roque’s appointment as the new presidential spokesman “confirms his dubious role” in defending President Rodrigo Duterte’s “wayward” policies despite being a leader of the House Minority, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said Saturday.

READ: Harry Roque named Duterte’s spokesman

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“The charade is now over as Roque is liberated and obligated to be the President’s official apologist,” Lagman said in a statement.

“We wish Roque well in his job of justifying the unjustifiable and defending the indefensible pronouncements and policies of the President,” he added.

Lagman said Roque, despite having a track record on defending human rights, has failed to criticize Duterte’s many crude and unfounded pronouncements and policies, including the unabated extrajudicial killings linked to the government’s war on drugs and the chief executive’s “predisposition to authoritarian rule.”

The lawmaker also pointed out that Roque has voted for the confirmation of the martial law declaration in Mindanao and its extension, advocated for the creation of panel to investigate the Ombudsman and recommended her impeachment, and even called for a zero budget for the Commission on Human Rights.

“To be the communications czar of Duterte, one has to be an expert mortician undertaking the post-mortem embellishment of the President’s crude and unfounded pronouncements and policies, and must be able to subdue one’s conscience in order to emote platitudes,” Lagman said.

The Malacañang announced Roque’s appointment late Friday night. He would replace Undersecretary Ernesto Abella effective November 6.

Roque, a human rights lawyer, said he accepted the position because his voice in the Congress was “limited” and saw it as an opportunity to help the administration “address key human rights issues” in the country. /jpv

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