The alleged photo showing President Duterte together with a certain Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG) official named Wang Min doesn't prove anything, aside from the existence of such photo.
This was basically Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque's response when asked during a virtual press conference Friday, Oct 29 about the implications of Duterte and Wang having a photo together.
On Thursday, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros branded XCMG as a tax evader, stemming from its supposed failure to pay income taxes despite being the Duterte administration's second-biggest contractor for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) supplies.
As if to suggest a "link" between the two persons, Hontiveros in her presentation before the Senate showed supposed photos of Duterte and Wang that were taken in 2017.
"Let’s just say under the laws of rules of evidence ‘no, iyong picture pong iyan ay ebidensiya lamang (that picture is merely evidence) of the existence of the picture – it cannot prove relationship," Roque, a lawyer, said.
"Ikaw naman senadora, masyado ka namang imaginative ‘no (Really senator? You're too imaginative)," he said in a jab at Hontiveros.
The Palace mouthpiece insisted that there's nothing revealing about such pictures, given how many photos and "selfies" have been taken of Duterte ever since he became President.
"Eh bakit, sino bang taong-gobyerno ang hindi nakikipag-picture? Ako nga mismo gusto kong iwasan eh hindi ko rin maiwasan ‘no kasi nga baka gamitin iyong picture at sabihing malapit ako diyan ‘no. So, pero hindi po natin maiwasan...lalung-lalo na ikaw ay Presidente at mayroong foreign investor na gustong mag-invest sa Pilipinas (Which government official doesn't pose for pictures? I, myself want to avoid those since they could be used to say that I'm close to someone. So, it can't be avoided...especially if you're the President and there's a foreign investor who wants to invest in the Philippines)," he explained.
Roque also said the supposed year the pictures were taken--2017--indocates absence of any relation to the COVID supply contracts of XCMG. "Napakatagal pa po niyan bago magkaroon ng pandemya (It would be a long while before the pandemic would take place)."
As to the government's tapping of a construction company to provide the country with medical goods during the pandemic, Roque didn't seem to find anything strange about it.
"Bakit nag-supply ng medical? Eh kung talagang nag-supply po ng medical supplies, eh siguro po may kakayahan silang mag-supply (Why did it supply medical goods? Maybe it really is capable of giving medical supplies)," he said.
Pointing to the Senate findings on another COVID supply contractor--the equally controversial Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp.--Roque said the government would have simply not paid XCMG had it failed to deliver the goods, or delivered items that were substandard.
"So siguro po hindi naman makaka-supply ‘yan kung wala silang medical supplies din bagama’t iba ang kanilang main line of business (Their main line of business may be different, but I guess they wouldn't be able to provide medical supplies had it not possessed the capability)," he said.