By Archie Villaflores and Deighton Acuin

Screenshot from PCOO/RTVM

GMA 7 Malacañang reporter Joseph Morong on Thursday called out Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque for supposedly cutting-off questions from his colleagues during one of his press briefings.   

It all began when CNN Philippines’ Correspondent Trish Terada was poised to ask Roque, only for her to be interrupted by the Palace official. Roque previously berated Terada in May and mistakenly identified her as the writer of an article where he was “misquoted”.  

When it was GMA’s Morong turn to ask, he requested Roque not to cut-off the questions of other reporters.   

“Sir request lang, can you not cut-off ‘yung audio ng mga nasa online. You could just say na you’re ending and going to end a question and answer this is kind of harsh if you cut-off the audio. This is the second time na na-cut ang audio ng reporter,” Morong said.   

Roque however denied that he is cutting of Palace reporters and instead blamed the internet connection providers: “I never cut-off anyone, Joseph. Never.” He added: “I can assure you, I never do that intentionally. Kung na-cu-cut off, it’s the fault of the telcoms.”   

Rappler correspondent Pia Ranada then echoed Morong’s statement over cutting-off of reporters but Roque insisted that he was not.  

“I reiterate, that I not intentionally do that. Blame the telecoms and not the OPS,” he answered.   

Ranada then responded: “It’s just funny the telecoms seem to fail every time you say we’ve asked too many questions.”   

After the briefing, netizens slam Roque for his responses making him among the trending topics on Twitter as of posting.


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