MANILA, Philippines – Incoming Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque maintains that President Rodrigo Duterte never makes claims without factual basis, given his access to so many sources of information.

At his first Malacañang press briefing on Thursday, November 2, Roque also said that the President’s marching order to him was to “never lie.”

“Think for what is right for the country and never lie. So do what is right and tell the truth. Two orders,” said Roque. 

During the briefing, the party-list representative was asked about the statement of US Ambassador Sung Kim that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is not funding destablization plots against Duterte, contrary to the President’s own claims.

“I trust and believe that my President will not say anything without factual basis. I stand by whatever my President says,” he said.

Roque said he welcomes the US ambassador’s denial.

“Well, if that is true, we’re happy. But if the President says that there is [a destabilization plot], I have no position to dispute what the President says,” he said.

Duterte, however has made claims, even threats, based on wrong or inaccurate information, among them, his  repeated claimed that Rappler is funded by the CIA. (READ: Duterte falsely claims CIA funds Rappler) 

In October, he threatened to expel European Union diplomats on the basis of an erroneous belief, supposedly from a media report, that the EU wanted the Philippines expelled from the United Nations.

Malacañang itself admitted later that the EU said nothing of the sort. Duterte was apparently referring to a statement by critics, including a Human Rights Watch director, that the Philippines can be kicked out of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) if drug war killings continue.

In any case, critics were referring to a possible expulsion from the UNHRC, not the UN.

Duterte has also claimed there are 4 million drug addicts in the Philippines even if there are no survey results or hard data that support this.

The figure is based on the claim of former Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency head Dionisio Santiago that there are 3 million drug addicts from “3 years ago” plus the roughly one million drug surrenderees under the Duterte administration.

The most recent Dangerous Drugs Board survey, conducted in 2015, shows there were only 1.8 million drug addicts then. For sticking to this smaller figure and not his “4 million” figure, Duterte fired former DDB chairperson Benjamin Reyes and replaced him with Santiago. – Rappler.com