BY ARGYLL GEDUCOS
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Malacañang maintained that President Duterte was not referring to the Lopezes when he said that he was able to dismantle the country’s oligarchy even without declaring martial law barely a week after the Congress dumped the bid of ABS-CBN network for a fresh 25-year franchise.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that Duterte would have blatantly declared so if he was indeed referring to the owners of ABS-CBN.
The Lopezes controlled the country’s giant network.
Roque made the statement after the unedited speech of the President during his visit to military troops Jolo, Sulu this week was reported.
In the said unedited speech, Duterte was quoted as saying ABS-CBN “defiled” him. This was not shown in the televised speech nor in the official transcript sent to Palace reporters.
“Yun namang ABS-CBN binaboy ako. Pero sinabi ko kapag ako nanalo, bubuwagin ko ang oligarchy ng Pilipinas. Ginawa ko (ABS-CBN defiled me. But I said if I win, I will dismantle the country’s oligarchy, and I did),” the President supposedly said.
In an interview with ANC, Roque said he could not have been wrong about President Duterte’s remark and insisted that the President was neutral on the issue of ABS-CBN’s franchise.
“I cannot be wrong. The documentary evidence shows that it was actually Congress that threw out the franchise application of ABS-CBN. The testimonial evidence also shows that they were the ones that decided that ABS-CBN should not be given a franchise. So why should this be attributed to the President?” he said.
