Press Release
October 5, 2018

Dispatch from Crame No. 396:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's Statement on Roque's and Cayetano's spin on the BBC feature

10/5/18

The spin of Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque and DFA Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on the BBC Documentary "Philippines: Democracy in Danger" is only expected. As Duterte's leading sycophants who have sold their soul and past reputation in exchange for ambition, both Roque and Cayetano can no longer move their lips without lying.

Just yesterday Duterte himself proved Roque to be a liar, when he admitted that he was hospitalized on Wednesday, despite Roque's previous statements that he was not. With this incident, one can no longer trust what comes out of Malacañang, although we have already known this for some time now.

Another lie is Roque's assertion in the BBC documentary that Philip Alston, then UN Special Rapporteur for Summary Executions, already "exculpated" Duterte from being involved with the Davao Death Squad. Roque of course read Alston's report, but he has no qualms lying point blank about the portion of the said Report which pointed out that the Davao summary killings were most probably "officially-sanctioned".

Alston further stated that Duterte's position that his various statements urging the killing of criminals has no effect on police conduct is "frankly untenable". According to Alston, this is because Duterte "dominates the city so thoroughly" as to be "powerless in the face of hundreds of murders committed by men without masks in view of witnesses".

This is not an exculpation. This is an indictment. Roque knows this fully well. He was one of the leading human rights lawyers of the Philippines at the time of the Alston Report, or at least that was what he pretended to be.

As for Cayetano, his reputation precedes him whenever he speaks in the world stage, like the UN General Assembly or the UN Human Rights Council.

Nobody in the diplomatic world really takes him seriously, simply because of his capacity to insult the intelligence of international officials and country representatives with his barefaced lies about how Duterte is saving the Philippines by killing the poor.

Cayetano should once in a while put himself in the shoes of the diplomats he peddles his lies to. He would know how it feels to be taken like a fool whenever one is lied to on his face. Being taken for a fool is definitely not something that world leaders and diplomats appreciate.

Between BBC and Cayetano, the world knows who spews out garbage like a tabloid, because that is what comes out of Cayetano's mouth every time he takes to the world stage. Cayetano should stop embarrassing himself by getting constructive feedback on his performance from people other than Mocha Uson.

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