If he had his way, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque prefers to delay the airing of President Duterte’s taped weekly public address the following morning.

Roque however claimed that some Palace journalists requested for the airing of the President’s address to the nation within the day as much as possible.

The Palace official tried to deflect the reason behind the President’s late night public address after Senator Nancy Binay asked the Palace communication team to review the effectiveness of his late-night messages on the coronavirus pandemic.

The senator's appeal was made after the President's taped public address from Davao City last Tuesday was aired on state television close to 1 a.m. Wednesday. Prior to the broadcast, Roque tweeted a photo of the President shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday with the caption "PRRD addressing the nation now."

"Kung ako ang tatanungin, nagsalita na ako at iminungkahi ko na gawin nang regular na kinabukasan nang umaga ang airing ng talumpati ng Presidente (If I'd be asked, I already said it and proposed to make it regular that the President's speech be aired the next morning)," Roque said during a televised press briefing in Davao City.

"Pero actually, nanggaling sa ilang miyembro ng Malacañang Press Corps na gusto nila same night i-broadcast kasi marami pala sa mga taga-Malacañang Press Corps mas gusto nilang magpuyat kaysa gumising nang maaga, so kaya naman napagbibigyan po. (But actually, it came from a few members of the Malacanang Press Corps who wanted the broadcast the same night because many preferred to stay up late than wake up in the working so it was granted)," he said.

Roque said he was willing to sit down with the press corps to tackle the matter.

When GMA-7 reporter Joseph Morong asked why the President's speech was being edited by the Palace in the first place and if it was possible to just air the address live, Roque told him to let it be.

"Naku naman, pabayaan mo na iyon sa Presidential Communication kung ie-edit nila o hindi. (Just let the Presidential Communication decide if they want to edit it or not)," Roque said.

Morong however insisted on the release of the President's speech on the same day it is delivered for public information. "If it happened today, why don’t we have to report it today—eh why do we have to wait until morn? If you don’t edit, we won’t have the problem," the reporter said.

Roque however said it was still better if the President's taped speech is aired the next day.

Ever since the coronavirus outbreak erupted a few months ago, the President held regular meetings with some Cabinet members, who also serve as Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases members, to tackle the government's coronavirus response. In the meeting usually held in the evening, the President delivered his “Talk to the People” where he issues directives related to the pandemic response and tackles other issues.

But unlike the past practice of live airing of the President’s speeches on state television, the Palace has decided to cut and edit his remarks before releasing it to the public. The video editing by the Radio-Television Malacanang (RTVM) and eventual Palace clearance may take a few hours, resulting in the late airing of the President's speech on People’s Television and government webpages.

Many netizens have poked fun at the before or after midnight release of the President's taped speech when the nation is supposedly mostly asleep.

When he was appointed to his old Palace post back in April, Roque promised that he would push for the earlier broadcast of the President’s speech.