Duterte set to ax GOCC exec, 3 generals, 70 policemen

FILE: President Rodrigo Duterte. (PCOO PHOTO)

MANILA— President Rodrigo Duterte has said he will fire a chairman of a government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) and at least 70 policemen as well as three generals.

“It would appear that there’s a second chairman who might be replaced because of graft,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing in Valencia, Bukidnon on Friday.

Recently, President Duterte removed Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) Administrator Marcial Quirico Amaro III from his post due to excessive foreign trips.

In his speech during an event of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation at the Manila Hotel last Thursday, President Duterte announced that he intends to fire 40 to 70 policemen and three generals.

“In the next few days, this is really a purging regime,” the President said.

During last Monday’s Cabinet meeting, President Duterte said he would also include the local government units in his effort to clean the bureaucracy of unscrupulous public officials.

Roque explained the President has concurrent jurisdiction even over the officials of the local governments.

“So that his legal basis to remove officials from their posts, not only presidential appointees but also local officials because the President has supervision over local government units. It means he has to make sure that they are doing their jobs. If they are not, that’s a basis for firing them,” Roque explained.

Meanwhile, Roque confirmed that Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz has resigned “due to health reasons.”

Roque, however, clarified that Corpus was not the chairman of a GOCC whom the President will terminate.

PCSO recently hit the headlines for spending a PHP6 million in a Christmas party at the Edsa Shangri-La hotel.