FRANCISCO S. TATAD
IT is not clear whether Protestant pastor Ernesto Abella had resigned or was unceremoniously fired as presidential spokesman, but without the simplest explanation, President Rodrigo Duterte has named Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque as his new man for the job. Roque, a human rights lawyer, accompanied DU30 with nine other Cabinet members and one presidential assistant on his hastily arranged weekend trip to Japan, and is expected to attend his first Cabinet meeting on November 6. In his acceptance statement, Roque put on record why he accepted the position, and how he intends to make DU30’s drug killings and his intemperate language less offensive to people around the world.