Harry drags Leni’s daughters into the ‘nasaan’ fray

Malacañang has taken offense at an exchange of tweets by Vice President Leni Robredo’s daughters, citing it as one of the reasons for President Rodrigo Duterte’s tirades against him after she assisted in the typhoon relief efforts.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque insisted that the president’s tirades against Robredo were well founded and that the Palace saw no reason for the president to apologize to her.

Roque mentioned the tweets of the vice president and her daughters, although none of these publications mentioned Mr. Duterte.

Robredo denounced President Duterte on Wednesday for falsely claiming that she made it appear that she was missing in action at the height of Typhoon “Ulises” (international name: Vamco), which caused massive destruction in Luzon.

Roque said Mr. Duterte did nothing wrong and would not apologize, unlike Presidential Chief Legal Advisor Salvador Panelo and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, whom he described as “true gentlemen” for apologizing to Robredo after they affirmed mistakenly that she boarded a Philippine Air Force C plane. -130 aircraft for their relief efforts.

“The president did not say anything bad,” Roque said at a press conference.

#NasaanAngPangulo

He said the context for Duterte’s tirade was the trending hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo. He didn’t know if Robredo herself used the tag, he said, but claimed that her tweets about updating her initiative to help typhoon survivors appeared to be in charge of relief efforts.

Duterte’s point was that government assets deployed for relief efforts had previously been placed during the typhoon, he said.

People close to Robredo hinted that the president was nowhere to be found, Roque said. “It didn’t help that even if I don’t know if the vice president asked where the president is, people close to her said so,” he said.

Roque cited the November 14 exchange of tweets from Robredo’s daughters, in which Tricia Robredo asked if anyone was still asleep when it was already 8 a.m., and Aika Robredo replied that it was Saturday and weekend.

None of the tweets mentioned a name or used the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo.

Roque did not elaborate on why he felt this was referring to the president.

Vice President Spokesperson

He said that the statements by Robredo’s spokesman, Barry Gutiérrez, were another factor in the president’s statements against him.

Roque quoted Gutiérrez as saying that leaders must be seen and felt in times of crisis, which he interpreted as a comment on the government’s response to Ulises.

Gutiérrez had also said that it was important to make people feel that the government has not forgotten you, Roque said.

“If it’s true, vice president, you didn’t ask where the president is, his spokesperson did. Scold your spokesperson. Don’t apologize to the president, ”he said.

In a tweet, Gutiérrez condemned Roque for targeting Robredo’s daughters at the Palace briefing.

“My God, 69 Filipinos dead, 325,000 displaced, over P1.5 billion in damages, and is this administration now spending its time analyzing the tweets of Leni’s daughters?” Gutiérrez said.

Online harassment

“Vice President Leni immediately went back to work (on Monday). Three days have passed and they are still hyperfixing this issue. Tell me, who’s politicking now? added.

Several netizens also pointed out that Robredo’s daughters, who were not public officials, should not have been subjected to scrutiny in an official Palace briefing. Both have been subjected to online harassment by anti-Robredo supporters.

“First of all, I don’t understand the fixation here. It’s a hashtag, it was a trend, get over it. Hello, 91 percent? Gutiérrez said.

The vice president’s spokesman said he had never posted anything like this on his social media accounts before scolding the administration for “having so long [for useless things] in your hands “.

Roque justified Duterte’s threats against Robredo after being asked if such behavior was presidential.

He said that Mr. Duterte was not “plastic” and that this was not the first time he had acted this way. People seem to accept him for who he is, he added.

91% confidence rating

“The behavior of the president has been constant. Is that un presidential? I don’t think so because 91 percent of the people have said they trust and believe that the president is performing his duties well. Are you a presidential? According to 91 percent of our people, no; according to 5 percent, including the vice president, yes, “said Roque.

In an interview, Gutiérrez asked the administration why it was so insecure about the Robredo typhoon recovery efforts “when they had a 91 percent approval rating.”

Instead of talking about what needs to be done to rebuild the lives of everyone affected by the typhoon, [here] we spent a lot of time talking about hashtags, talking about who said what, “he said. “To be very clear, this does not interest us.”

Gutiérrez said it didn’t make sense for the president to be so offended by a trending topic that didn’t even come from the vice president’s camp when Robredo has been “continually attacked by an endless barrage of fake news, online abuse and his daughters subjected to threats. of rape “.

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