JOURNALISTS covering Malacañang complained on Saturday at the apparent attempt of the Palace communications team to sanitize the official transcripts of the speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The reporters complained that the transcript of Duterte’s August 5 speech at Camp Lapu Lapu in Cebu City did not contain his remarks about US Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Members of the Malacañang Press Corps noticed that two of President Rodrigo Duterte’s hard-hitting remarks against the US ambassador, calling him an annoying homosexual were noticeably absent in the official transcript released by the Presidential Communications Office, led by Secretary Martin Andanar.
Recordings of Duterte’s speech, however, confirmed that the President indeed said the words quoted by news agencies.
Palace-released transcripts have in the past been faithful to the remarks of the President wherever he may have said it, but both the MPC and the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines have noted edited transcripts under the leadership of Andanar.
One of the reporters lamented in the conversation that the President’s statements in official transcripts, should not “be cleansed, with or without curses.”
Palace reporters complained to Communications Undersecretary for Media Relations Rachel “Queenie” Rodolfo, but all she could was she would forward the concern to responsible officials.