"'Di kita stan (You're not my stan)."
This was Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque's response to opposition Senator Franklin Drilon after the latter labeled him a "troll" for asking him to explain the previous Aquino administration's purchase of personal protective equipment (PPEs) worth at least P3,500 each.
In his press briefing on Thursday, September 2, Roque tried to make fun of Drilon for being his "stan."
"'Di kita stan, Senator Drilon. Ang issue overpricing (You're not my stan, Senator Drilon. The issue here is overpricing)," he said.
Stan is a slang word that refers to a person being overly obsessive with a celebrity. Originating from Eminem's 2000 song of the same name, "stan" is a combination of the words "stalker" and "fan."
Meanwhile, Roque urged Drilon to focus on the matter at hand and stop using words or slang like "troll" that he may not know the meaning of.
"Focus na lang po tayo sa tunay na issue. Nasaan po ang overpricing? Wala (Let's focus on the real issue. Where is the overpricing there? There's none). So let's leave it at that," he said.
"Sana po kung tayo ay magde-debate, pag-usapan na lang natin ang facts. Tama na po 'yang kung anu-anong pangalan ang ginagamit, mukhang hindi niyo naman naiintindihan kung ano ang ibig sabihin ng 'troll' (If we're going to have a debate, I hope we can stick to facts. Enough with the use of names. It seems you don't know what a 'troll' means)," he added.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has defined troll as "a person who intentionally antagonizes others online by posting inflammatory, irrelevant, or offensive comments or other disruptive content."
Over the past decade, Internet users adopted the word "troll" to denote someone who intentionally disrupts online communities.
The seemingly millennial exchange between Roque and Drilon is rooted in the ongoing Senate probe on the alleged overpriced PPEs that the government purchased last year at the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.