Duterte defender Roque shocked at Robredo Holocaust memorial photo

MANILA, Philippines — A photo of Vice President Leni Robredo and other Liberal Party officials smiling at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin was too much even for presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who regularly defends the president's oft-controversial words and actions.

On Tuesday, the vice president has already apologized for the photo in the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, Germany. She said that there was no excuse for it.

The memorial honors and remembers up to six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of Jews by Nazi Germany, which believed that German "Aryans" were racially superior.

Roque said that he could not understand Robredo and Liberal Party members Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte (Quezon City, 6th District), Rep. Teddy Baguilat (Ifugao), Rep. Miro Quimbo (Marikina), Rep. Jorge Banal (Quezon City, 3rd District), Rep. Kaka Bag-ao (Dinagat Islands) and former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

“I was shocked when she apologized. Although she has already apologized, I can’t understand what they were thinking (when they did that),” Roque said in an interview on government Radyo ng Pilipinas.

“I thought: ‘Didn’t they understand the place they were in?’” he said.

Duterte’s spokesman also said that there is a code of conduct for public officials to make sure that the actions of public officials are beyond reproach.

Roque, however, has explained away controversial words and acts in the past.

Roque famously labeled feminists as “overacting” over Duterte jokes they deemed sexist.

"You know, sometimes, these feminists are really a bit OA (overacting). I mean, that’s funny. Come on. Just laugh," Roque said in a video interview in February. 

When Duterte was widely condemned for threatening to shoot female communist rebels in their most private of parts, Roque defended the comments and said the public should have already realized not to take the leader literally but treat him seriously.

The Philippine leader was also criticized in the past for his rhetoric in the bloody crackdown on illegal drugs.

Reacting to a comparison to Hitler, Duterte, said that he was “happy to slaughter” millions of addicts. He later apologized for it and said that it was not his intention of offend the Jewish community.

Baguilat, who posted and deleted the controversial photo on a social network, also apologized for the LP members' actions.

Although the Rules of Conduct of the Field of Stelae do not prohibit taking pictures at the memorial, many social media users pointed out that it was disrespectful to pose for pictures at a memorial for the dead.