PRESIDENTIAL Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. has gone on leave beginning Monday, October 8, a member of the Palace official's staff announced.
Roque was initially set to hold a press briefing with Palace reporters around 11:30 a.m. Monday.
Duterte's mouthpiece's supposed press conference, however, was announced cancelled in an updated media advisory.
"[Please] be advised that presidential spokesperson will be on leave starting today, Monday, October 8," Director Dennis Ting of Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) told Palace reporters.
"All requests for statements kindly post here for his corresponding response. Thank you," he added.
Ting did not cite any reason for Roque's surprise leave.
The announcement came four days after President Rodrigo Duterte offered Roque a new position in Malacañang, as the Chief Executive believed that his spokesman has no fighting chance of winning the 2019 senatorial derby.
"Si Roque, gusto mag-senador. Sabi ko, 'Tama ka na. T*** i** diyan. Standby ka. Bigyan kita ibang trabaho. Hindi ka manalo diyan,'" the President said in a speech delivered at Malacañan Palace on Thursday, October 4.
(Roque wants to be a senator. I said, "Stop it. Son of a b****, stay there. I will give you another job. You will not win there.")
On Friday, October 5, Roque said he would consider the President's offer, but admitted that it was "difficult" to continue with his role as Duterte's spokesperson after he was left uninformed about the President's hospital visit last week.
Communications Secretary Jose Ruperto Martin Andanar on Saturday, October 6, said Roque has been offered to head the Office of the Press Secretary, which is yet to be re-established.
The OPS, through Executive Order 4 signed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2010, was reorganized into the PCOO and the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO).
In 2016, Duterte abolished PCDSPO and transferred its functions to the PCOO, which was supposed to be renamed the Presidential Communications Office. (SunStar Philippines)