PRESIDENTIAL Spokesman Harry Roque on Monday denied authoring a bill punishing rallies without permits while he was a member of the House of Representatives.
Roque, a Kabayan party-list representative before being named President Rodriqo Duterte’s spokesman, said the measure he filed was House Bill 3023, or a proposed act “ensuring the free exercise by the people of their right peaceably to assemble and petition the government.”
He said the bill was filed on Aug. 15, 2016, and was intended to address the “mass or concerted action that is narrowly directed at the household, not the public.”
“Under the 3023, protesters who will be prohibited from conducting rallies are those who “do not seek to disseminate a message to the general public, but to intrude upon the targeted resident, and to do so in an especially offensive way,” Roque said.
He expressed dismay that the bill he authored had turned out to be in an “unrecognizable form.”
“It is unfortunate that the bill I have filed that aims to protect the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances has been perverted to an unrecognizable form,” he said.
He said this was the same bill filed by the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago during the Third Regular Session of the 16th Congress.
“As you are all aware, I resigned my post as a member of the House of Representatives last November when I took my oath as a member of the President’s Cabinet,” Roque said.
“The bill in which I am being tagged as the author, HB 6834, was submitted to the Committee on Rules on Dec. 12, 2017″•a month after I resigned as a member of Congress”•and sponsored by Reps. Maria Valentina Plaza, Carlos Isagani Zarate, Makmod Mending Jr., Maria Vida Bravo and Florida Robes. It was scheduled in the House Order of Business the following day, Dec. 13.”©”©
“Had I still been a member of Congress when the bill in its current form was submitted for approval on second reading, I, too, would have also withdrawn as its author.”