Duterte done with politics? Inquirer.net runs non-story

JEERS TO Inquirer.net for picking up Harry Roque’s remark about Rodrigo Duterte’s political plans, or lack of it. 

Is it even really news, coming from Roque who has not authority, no official position with which to speak about the former president? He has not even been identified among insiders in Duterte’s company. 

Inquirer.net on June 11 reported Roque’s remark that he made in an interview on Radyo 360, saying that his former superior is tired of politics, and that Duterte only wants to take care of his great-grandchild. The report did not check how Roque found out about Duterte wanting to be just an ordinary “yayo,” or male nanny. 

Roque’s statement was also a month-late riposte to former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s announcement that Duterte was going to run for the Senate. So the puff piece is a way of keeping Duterte in the news and gaining some spotlight for him—maybe a small shove for Duterte’s political strategy. 

The practice recalls media’s sustained reportage on Rodrigo Duterte’s national tour in 2015 supposedly advocating for federalism. Indeed, reporters gave the city mayor free publicity, picking up his jokes, his obscenities and more, giving him the stature that he did not have then in national politics. 

Surely, media could do better things than indulge hearsay about Rodrigo Duterte’s state of mind. Reports should instead call public attention to the problems resulting from his misguided and mistaken policies during his six-year term and help the public assess what kind of coverage Duterte truly deserves.