Pinky Webb goes viral after hair flip during TV interview with Harry Roque
TV host Pinky Webb is the talk of Twitter on Wednesday, Jan. 20 because of her hair flip during a heated TV interview with Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr.
In the interview with CNN Philippines news program “The Source," Webb and Roque talked about the Duterte administration’s termination of the University of the Philippines-Department of National Defense accord, a decades-long deal that bars the police and military from setting foot inside the UP campus.
Webb asked Roque’s opinion on UP professor Danial Arao’s viral tweet. In the tweet, Arao challenged UP alumni currently working for the government to “denounce” the decision to terminate the accord.
Roque earned his law degree at the University of the Philippines.
“CHALLENGE: UP faculty and alumni who are Duterte's top-level officials should denounce Lorenzana's letter terminating the 1989 accord. This disregards everything that UP stands for. Should they remain silent, a six-word question: Where is your honor and excellence?” Arao tweeted.
CHALLENGE: UP faculty and alumni who are Duterte's top-level officials should denounce Lorenzana's letter terminating the 1989 accord. This disregards everything that UP stands for. Should they remain silent, a six-word question: Where is your honor and excellence?
— Danilo Arao (@dannyarao) January 18, 2021
Roque responded, “"I’m asking the DND Secretary and the President of UP to sit down, and I have offered my good offices to facilitate this meeting.”
Webb further asked Roque about his personal opinion about the matter. Roque replied, "There’s really no such thing when you are a Presidential spokesperson.”
He added, “All I’m saying is let’s talk about this, I support the steps of the UP President, and let’s see why a 30-year-old accord should not be continued when it has worked, apparently perfectly well, in the past 30 years.”
After a commercial break, Roque told Webb that her “question on Arao” is unfair.”
“In the first place, why am I duty-bound to follow anything that Prof. Arao says?” he said. “You made it appear as if it’s compulsory to follow it.”
Webb explained she did not say Roque was “duty-bound.” To which Roque replied: "What was the basis for that?”
“It was a tweet, sir,” Webb said.
"But you said I had to follow him, and if I did not do as he did then I have no honor or excellence. Is that a fair question? That’s not,” he said.
Webb explained that she simply read Arao’s tweet and asked his reaction about it, but Roque said that “it’s implying” that he should follow what Arao said.
“Then if you say why should you answer it, and if you answered it that way sir, then I would take it as is,” Webb said.
Roque replied: “But you’re pushing the point. Going beyond asking for my reaction. Because ‘Will you denounce it?’ You said it on record. The TV recorded it. You have to be fair, no?”
At this point, Webb flips her hair and said, “I am trying to be fair.”
The hair flip gesture caught the attention of netizens, commenting how Webb remained calmed while Roque was heated during their conversation.
“Yung G na G si Harry Roque tapos flip lang ng flip ng hair si Pinky Webb. Love it! Hahaha!” Twitter user @polojordano said while sharing a clip of Webb’s interview with Roque.
Yung G na G si Harry Roque tapos flip lang ng flip ng hair si Pinky Webb. Love it! Hahaha! pic.twitter.com/9hB2aLqTdQ
— PoloJordano27 (@polojordano) January 20, 2021
Webb’s hair flip has also become a GIF which has been shared in a number of viral tweets about the interview.
The GIF for the day. Good afternoon to Pinky Webb only. pic.twitter.com/eB9OnMeXSY
— RJ Valencia (@rjvalencia) January 20, 2021
ABS-CBN journalist Jeff Canoy shared the GIF with a tweet that simply says, “Amen.”
Amen. pic.twitter.com/SZrGQL0JSJ
— Jeff Canoy (@jeffcanoy) January 20, 2021
Webb herself took the incident in good humor. She tweeted a GIF of herself doing the now infamous hair flip with the caption, “Hair flip is life. Pero baka ponytail muna bukas.”
Hair flip is life. Pero baka ponytail muna bukas. pic.twitter.com/F3ucj95Grp
— Pinky Webb (@iampinkywebb) January 20, 2021
Banner image and thumbnail screengrabbed from CNN Philippines' YouTube channel