Malacañang urged the netizens to stop asking where President Rodrigo Duterte amid calamities after #NasaanAngPangulo trended again on Twitter during the onslaught Typhoon Ulysses, which devastated Luzon.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque insisted that Duterte was always monitoring the situation and coordinating government agencies to aid Filipinos affected by the typhoons.
“People should not ask where the President is because the President is always on top of the situation. In this time of technology, he gets to know what is happening in the different areas of the country,” Roque said at a press briefing.
“The President is not missing. He is always with us, he is always thinking of the welfare of our countrymen,” he added.
Roque also defended Duterte against the perception that the President was trivializing the Filipinos experience during the typhoon when Duterte said he wanted to swim with them but was not allowed by the Presidential Security Group.
He asserted that the opposition was behind the trending hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo and asked it to stop that kind of online activity.
Roque urges netizens to stop asking NasaanAngPangulo
#NasaanAngPangulo trended on social media on All Saint’s Day after netizens and groups criticized President Rodrigo Duterte’s “no-show” in the midst of the ravages of typhoon Rolly, the so-called strongest typhoon in the world by 2020.
“Only those who really dislike the President is saying that. The real message of the President is, ‘I am one with the victims of this typhoon,’” Roque said.
Roque also explained Duterte’s absence at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council meeting on Friday, saying the President’s presence was not needed as the Cabinet members were already there.
“He does not need to preside over the meeting because, as you can see, all agencies, all departments are functioning and fulfilling their duties even if the President is not physically in the room,” Roque said.
“The President also has to fulfill his role as chief architect of foreign policy,” he added.
Duterte made a public address later on Thursday, assuring those affected by the calamity that the government “would not leave anybody behind.”