Sock it to them,Harry

Representative Harry Roque, who is about to shed his legislative duties to become the new presidential spokesman, is freaking out the president’s critics even before he has officially assumed his new position. How do I know? Because they have started attacking him already. Congressmen from the minority have started questioning Roque’s principles, which is a big haha because they are making it appear as if they themselves have any. What hypocrites!

Whether or not Roque has principles has nothing to do with his appointment as presidential spokesman. Besides, what Roque believes in he must have found out for himself alone, without the help of anybody, least of all his fellow congressmen, who certainly have a “highly principled” way of judging a person for a job he has not even had the occasion to assume yet. What hypocrites!

Roque, for the enlightenment of his newfound critics, was appointed presidential spokesman not on the basis of any abundance or lack of principles but because he is a talker, and an intelligent one at that. A talker, an intelligent talker, is precisely what the job of a spokesman demands. An intelligent talker is needed to convey presidential messages precisely and at the same time parry difficult questions and criticisms convincingly.

Prior to the announcement of Roque’s appointment, I myself have been wondering ceaselessly when Duterte would finally get around to replacing Ernesto Abella who I felt was too benign, deferential, and even tentative for such a high-strung position. As a relatively young personality, perhaps Duterte did not notice Roque at the time he was making his first appointments. He would have made an ideal first choice.

Right off the bat, Roque promptly made it clear what he will be like as a spokesman. Of course he threw in a few hyperboles like bricks and hollow blocks for effect. As expected, the gullible in media quickly lapped it up. No wonder the media has sunk so low in the regard of the public. I have often been critical of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña. But if there’s one thing I thank him for, it is this piece of advice: “You are too serious, Jerry. Try to lighten up. Laugh once in a while.”

And yes indeed. Being in media doesn’t nail one to the cross of eternal seriousness. In fact, in covering people, no one is in a better position than media to know whether the person they are covering is being serious or just having a little fun. A lesson then for new or aspiring journalists –know your source well, watch his eye, listen to his tone, note his body language.

Just because a person is of high authority does not mean he is impervious to a little mischief. Even the pope laughs. That is why Duterte loves to play around with journalists, especially those from Manila who have not really gotten around to knowing him. He relishes how they stumble and err over morsels and tidbits of wit and mischief that their Davao counterparts have learned so well to differentiate.

Roque was once a guest speaker at a Cebu Press Freedom Week forum hosted by The FREEMAN. The forum was packed. His reputation apparently preceded him. Roque politely declined the modest fee we offered, asking only that we treat him to Cebu’s famous lechon.

He came to talk, he said, and if to taste once more our succulent delicacy was the bonus, he would take us up all the time. Right then I knew this guy would make a great messenger and communicator. Throw lechon at them, too, Harry!