FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte and his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, went to Hong Kong to speak before Filipinos there, mostly overseas Filipino workers, about issues besetting the country.
Immediately, the spin creators and agitprops of the Marcos administration on social media planted the news that Duterte went abroad to evade the coming serving of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he and several others are facing charges of crimes against humanity because of his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
This could have been just another back-and-forth narrative on social media had not the official announcement been made by the Presidential Communications Office thus: “We’ve heard that an arrest warrant has been issued by the International Criminal Court against former president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity. The government is prepared for any eventuality.” The statement was made by PCO Secretary Jay Ruiz on March 9 and carried by newspapers and online publications.
Earlier, Malacañang Palace and the Department of Justice pointed out that if representatives from the ICC arrive to arrest Duterte etc., the government will have no other recourse but to cooperate.
‘Media critics were unforgiving about that PCO announcement — that of passing off as news the conjecture that the ICC has issued a warrant of arrest against Duterte…’
Reactions from all over were aired hours after the PCO announcement, the more relevant of which is that one from Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra who said the Office of the Solicitor General has not received any notice or communication from the ICC regarding the matter, and the OSG is leaving it to the Department of Foreign Affairs to handle the issue.
After more denials from certain interested sectors including the left-wing Bayan party-list, PCO Undersecretary Claire Castro, Palace press officer, had to issue this clarification: “No confirmation of issuance of warrant of arrest from the Palace.”
Meanwhile in Hong Kong, former President Duterte was unfazed when he heard the news that he was soon to be arrested. He said what he did — the bloody and messy fight against drug syndicates during his time — was implemented to save the Filipinos from the scourge of drug addiction and social ruin. He jokingly asked the audience to donate small amounts of money so that when he finally serves his sentence, they could construct a monument for him near that of Dr. Jose Rizal. Duterte genuinely believes that he had done a heroic deed.
Media critics were unforgiving about that PCO announcement — that of passing off as news the conjecture that the ICC has issued a warrant of arrest against Duterte, even if qualifying that it was what they heard. It is akin to planting the seeds of fake news in the media milieu, ironically by the very department of the government that purportedly fights fake news.
What does this make of Ruiz? The government’s anti-fake news general on social media and traditional media is himself the purveyor of false information.
The job of a press secretary or a press officer in Malacañang is to relay reliable information, policies and utterances from the president to the public, through the press and various media platforms.
When a PCO undersecretary needed to issue a disclaimer on what the department’s chief had said, there is little convincing needed to ascertain that the Marcos administration’s press office is deficient.
