Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque rejected the call of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines to apologize to a reporter for berating and cutting her off during a press conference for allegedly misquoting him on government’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) testing efforts.
“I don’t owe anything to NUJP. I’ve done work for NUJP, they probably owe me, I don’t owe them,” Roque said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) on Wednesday.
The NUJP, in a statement, described Roque’s actions as “boorish and, as it turned out, misbegotten tirade.”
"Officials who earn public ire for their pronouncements should not blame journalists who are merely doing their jobs," the NUJP said. PNA
Roque, however, insisted that he was misquoted since CNN even “corrected” their story.
“CNN has since corrected the story so there was really a mistake. If there’s a mistake, if you acknowledge the mistake, I don’t even demand an apology. Just correct it because we’re all in the business of the truth, that to me is enough,” Roque said.