Image capture of video by Trisha Macas via GMA News Online • President Duterte ended his boycott of the media when he gave reporters in Malacañang a go signal for a press briefing
• The reporters were surprised when the President talked to them
• Last June, the President said he will not grant media interviews until the end of his term
President Rodrigo Duterte ended his almost two months of media boycott when he spoke to members of the media and held the first press briefing in Malacañang on Monday, August 1.
After leading the mass oath-taking of several appointed officials at the Rizal Hall of Malacañang Palace, the president surprised reporters when he went over to the media area and talked to them. He then gave a go signal for a first press briefing with them.
According to GMA News Online, a microphone stand had to be moved to the middle of the room where the President was standing as the reporters gathered closer to him.
Among the topics tackled in the impromptu press conference were the lifting of the unilateral ceasefire with the communist rebels and its possible effects on the resumption of peace talks and the end of labor contractualization.
After the press briefing, Duterte gamely posed for a photo with the reporters.
Last June, the President, reacting to calls by Reporters Without Borders to local journalists to boycott him until he apologizes for his statement that some media men were killed because they are corrupt, dared reporters to stop covering him.
However, the local media said they will not boycott the president, and so it was Duterte who boycotted them.
“Kung ayaw n’yo daw mag-boycott sa kanya, s’ya daw mag-boycott sa inyo [If you don’t want to boycott him, he said he’’ll be the one to boycott you],” Duterte’s executive assistant Bong Go said via a text message sent to reporters on June 4.
The President said then that he will not grant media interviews until the end of his term.
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