Former Palace Spokesperson Ernesto Abella once said President Rodrigo Duterte “speaks rather forcefully” but has good intentions. (VERA FILES YEARENDER: Explaining the president: He says, they say)
Current spokesperson Harry Roque, echoing the words of another Palace official, said Duterte’s words should be taken “seriously but not literally.” (A year under Duterte: Explaining the president)
Watch this video to see how else both made sense of the president’s controversial pronouncements.
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative.)
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