President Rodrigo Duterte was only joking when he linked former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II to the failed assassination attempt on former police general and now Daanbantayan, Cebu, Mayor Vicente Loot, Malacañang said Wednesday.
Roxas’ spokesman said Wednesday Roxas was letting slide Duterte’s remark that he ordered the killing of Loot.
Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, Roxas’ party mate in the Liberal Party, said the senatorial hopeful was not a violent man.
“In the spirit of Christmas, Secretary Mar’s attitude is to just let go. Secretary Panelo had already clarified that its just a joke,” Erice told GMA News Online.
In his speech in Davao City on Tuesday night, Duterte first denied any involvement from the ambush of Loot, accusing Roxas of ordering the attack on Loot at a wharf in Daanbantayan on May 13, taking away the life of Loot’s driver-bodyguard in the ambush.”I wasn’t the one who ordered his ambush. It was Roxas. Roxas ordered his ambush, not me,” Duterte said.
“Because he was told, ‘Your Garbo, your senior police aide is involved in drugs.’ That was why Roxas was irked. He said, ‘Kill him instead in order for us not to be in shame.’
“So it reached my term. That’s it. ‘Psst, Roxas ordered this someone to be ambushed.’ Who else would try to ambush a police general?”
Sought to explain Duterte’s pronouncement, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo dismissed Duterte’s remark as yet another joke.
“It appears to me to [have been] said in jest, given the fact that General Loot is a pet peeve of the President because he is involved in drugs and Mr. Loot is a known protégé of Secretary Roxas. I think it was more of an expression of displeasure said in jest,” Panelo told reporters.
“If it’s a joke, then it’s not an accusation. And as the President says, you can’t stop me from making jokes. Whether it’s necessary or not, that is his style.”
Panelo also defended Duterte’s remarks by saying Duterte’s statements were not a form of bullying, even if it involved someone’s reputation.
“I do not think so. People make jokes. It doesn’t mean you’re bullying someone. If it is a joke, it doesn’t involve a reputation because you are joking about it,” Panelo said.
In the 2016 presidential Elections, Roxas lost to Duterte. The President had accused Loot and other former police generals of shielding drug lords and syndicates.
The mayor had previously denied the President’s accusation, stressing he would not have the power to “protect” any criminal as he was busy with purely administrative works during the last seven years of his police service.
Aside from Loot, Duterte also linked former Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo Jr., former National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Joel Pagdilao, former Quezon City Police District Office director Chief Superintendent Edgardo Tinio and former Western Visayas police Chief Superintendent Bernardo Diaz to illegal drugs.
Loot was believed to have been an associate of Roxas, an allegation which the former Cabinet official strongly denied.
