Roque: ‘The President doesn’t kowtow to any foreigner’

Spox Harry Roque during press briefing in Malacañang , Tuesday. INQUIRER PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC

Malacañang on Tuesday sharply denied Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio’s criticism that President Duterte was kowtowing to or appeasing China.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Philippines had filed a formal diplomatic protest against Beijing’s militarization of the artificial islands it had built in the South China Sea and that the Palace considered this a “continuing protest.”

Protest on a daily basis

“It’s not as if we did not file any protests. We have, but whether or not, we should do so on a daily basis, that’s something the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) will determine,” Roque said in a press briefing.

“But I would think that once we have protested what we deemed is an act that threatens international peace in the area, then that is a continuing protest,” he added.

Roque said Mr. Duterte was not kowtowing to any foreign power but was thinking of the country’s best interest. —Philip C.Tubeza