Palace spokesman Harry Roque on Thursday said he had already learned his lesson after causing another quarantine fiasco in Cebu last week.
On Nov. 27, Roque appeared in front of a crowd in Cebu during the opening of the Bantayan Island Airport.
Roque said he was “taken aback” by the huge audience turnout, but instead of encouraging the crowd to observe physical distancing, Roque said wearing masks was enough as they were in an open-air venue.
“Lesson learned na po iyan,” he said in a Palace briefing on Thursday.
He also admitted it was right for Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya to say that government officials not observing minimum health protocols against Covid-19 might promote complacency among Filipinos.
“Kaya noong pumasok po tayo dito sa Palawan [for this media briefing], pagpaumanhin ninyo po, I really demanded everyone should observe social distancing,” Roque said.
It was not the first time Roque drew the public’s ire amid the pandemic-caused lockdowns.
In July, Roque went dolphin-watching at the Ocean Adventure Park in Subic. Some photos showed him posing for photos with fellow resort-goers, but he maintained he was only beside dolphins during his trip.
As the country grappled with the effects of typhoon “Ulysses” that flooded parts of Luzon in mid-November, Roque was also seen in a viral video of himself singing in front of a Baguio crowd.
Roque later explained he was just “unloading a little.” John Ezekiel J. Hirro