President Rodrigo Duterte will check the situation in areas severely affected by Super Typhoon ‘Rolly’, according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque.

The President, according to Roque, is now on his way from his hometown in Davao City to Manila and is expected to conduct an aerial inspection while on his flight.

‘Rolly’ was dubbed as the most devastating storm in 2020 and the President has been absent from the public eye since the typhoon ravaged Luzon last weekend.

“Dahil inaasahan po natin yung landfall kahapon, at saka sa totoo lang po, araw ng Linggo naman iyon,” Roque said.

Senator Bong Go also defended the President’s absence saying, “Hindi ibig sabihin na nasa Mindanao ang Pangulo ay hindi siya nagtatrabaho. 24/7 nagtatrabaho ang Pangulo,” Go said.

Rolly left at least 16 people dead based on initial report from local disaster officials.

Meanwhile, Malacañang does not believe that there’s a big hole in spreading the communication ahead of the onslaught of the super typhoon last weekend.

Netizens were quick to say that ABS-CBN could’ve helped in spreading the news to far flung areas on the incoming super typhoon.

“Sa tingin ko po, nagbibigay pugay po tayo lalong lalo na sa PTV reporters, sa PIA. Gumagana po ‘yung communication infrastructure ng gobyerno sa panahon ng aberya so sa tingin ko po wala namang vacuum,” Roque said.

He also took note of the private news outfits who are also doing their best to inform the public on the typhoon.

“Nandyan din po ang ating mga pribadong news agencies, nandyan po ang TV5, nandyan po ang GMA-7 at nandyan po ang mga matatapang, magagaling, masisipag na reporters ng radyo so sa tingin ko naman po wala pong nagkaroon ng communication vacuum,” he added.

ABS-CBN failed to renew its franchise last July from Congress and later on decided to shutdown all of its regional offices to cut cost.