{"id":152301,"date":"2018-02-12T01:52:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T06:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=152301"},"modified":"2018-02-12T01:52:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T06:52:30","slug":"lagman-hits-roque-for-backpedalling-on-dutertes-drug-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/12\/lagman-hits-roque-for-backpedalling-on-dutertes-drug-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagman hits Roque for backpedalling on Duterte’s drug war"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque (KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Opposition lawmaker and Human Right lawyer Albay Representative Edcel Lagman on Sunday accused Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque of taking a \u201c180-degree turnaround”on his stand on President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s anti-illegal drugs campaign.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker said that Roque easily \u201ccrumble under the weight\u201d of being a Presidential Spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome individuals easily crumble under the weight of official title and jettison without qualms their principles for partisan subservience and convenience,\u201d Lagman said.<\/p>\n

He pointed out that Roque was then critical to Duterte\u2019s bloody illegal drugs campaign when he was still a Kabayan party-list representative.\u00a0Lagman said that Roque is now singing a \u201ccompletely different refrain, a 180-degree turnaround\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lagman was pertaining to Roque\u2019s statement when he warned Duterte to be cautious with his statement on the war on drugs, and that the International Criminal Court (ICC) might execute its jurisdiction over him for accusations of allegedly committing crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

He also recalled the August 11, 2016 privilege speech of Roque: \u201cIt is clear that civilian populations are in fact under attack. We see this and the International Court of Justice has recognized this fact through news reports all around us overwhelmingly establishing that hundreds of Filipinos have been killed either directly or by government forces, or with the support or tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It also clear that the President is aware that these acts are ongoing. Even without proof of a directive on his part, he has, in many instances, spoken about the use of violence against drug syndicates,” Roque earlier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it would be imprudent for me to say with certainty that President Duterte has already committed a crime against humanity, it would still be a disservice to this entire nation if I didn\u2019t warn the President to be careful,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, however, when sought for comment said that he had been \u201ctaken out of context.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no conclusion there. Just a warning. I said that elements of crimes against humanity were still to be established,\u201d he said in an exclusive text message sent to Inquirer.net.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI concluded [the President] could still not be held liable for crimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the record, Roque said that the administration\u2019s war contra illegal drugs are lawful and a sovereign act, saying that the International Criminal Court (ICC)\u2019s action to conduct a \u201cpreliminary examination\u201d would be a \u201cwaste of time and resources\u201d for the court.<\/p>\n

The Hague-based ICC is set to conduct its preliminary examination on the alleged summary executions related to President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s campaign to suppress the narcotics problem in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

[READ:\u00a0ICC to conduct \u2018preliminary examination\u2019 vs. Duterte, PH war on drugs]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposition lawmaker and Human Right lawyer Albay Representative Edcel Lagman on Sunday accused Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque of taking a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":129776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,483],"tags":[17527,46372,31449],"class_list":["post-152301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-albay-representative-edcel-lagman","tag-president-rodrigo-dutertes-illegal-drugs-campaign","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","mauthors-michealina-vallarta-david","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}