{"id":274754,"date":"2020-11-10T04:34:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-10T09:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=274754"},"modified":"2020-11-10T07:39:03","modified_gmt":"2020-11-10T12:39:03","slug":"prrd-distributing-pastillas-symbolic-of-anger-vs-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/11\/10\/prrd-distributing-pastillas-symbolic-of-anger-vs-corruption\/","title":{"rendered":"PRRD distributing pastillas ‘symbolic’ of anger vs. corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Pastillas were placed on the chairs of the Immigration officials summoned by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malaca\u00f1ang Palace on November 9, 2020. ARCEL VALDERRAMA\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s distributing pastillas with rolled up money to 40 suspended immigration officials is \u201csymbolic\u201d of his anger versus corruption, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this remark after Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra bared that Duterte summoned erring immigration officials allegedly involved in the so-called \u201cpastillas\u201d bribery scheme and gave them a dressing down in Malaca\u00f1ang on Monday night.<\/p>\n

He said Duterte reportedly asked them to eat the pastillas, “but did not insist out of deference to the Secretary of Justice who was also present”.<\/p>\n

\u201cNagbigay po ng pangaral ang Presidente na talagang dapat matigil ang korupsyon na ito at yung kaniyang pagbibigay naman ng<\/em>\u00a0pastillas, that\u2019s also symbolic of his anger against corruption\u00a0pero kagaya ng aking sinabi hindi naman po niya pinilit<\/em>\u00a0(The President gave a sermon that this corruption should really stop and his giving pastillas, that\u2019s also symbolic of his anger against corruption but as I said he did not force them),\u201d he said in a Palace press briefing.<\/p>\n

Roque said none of the 40 suspended immigration officials dared to speak while they were being reprimanded by the President.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the message has been received\u00a0kasi<\/em>\u00a0(because) not a single person, out of the 40 individuals there, uttered a single word,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He said the giving out of pastillas was simply not \u201cfor show\u201d, adding the President was really determined to spend the last two years of his term fighting corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President is sending a message,\u00a0\u2018Itigil ang korupsyon. At nung ginawa po niya<\/em>\u00a0I think\u00a0lahat po ng taong gobyerno narinig po ang mensahe<\/em>\u00a0(The President is sending a message \u2018Stop corruption\u2019. And when he did that, I think all the people in the government heard the message),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked how much amount was rolled in the pastillas, Roque said he never got to find out since none of the erring immigration officials opened them.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi na po nalaman kung magkano kasi wala naman dun sa kuwarentang nagbukas ng<\/em>\u00a0pastillas.\u00a0Hinawakan lang nilang lahat<\/em>\u00a0(We never found out because none of the 40 officials opened the pastillas. They were just holding it),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He noted the President was \u201ccalm\u201d while reprimanding the erring immigration officials since he just finished administering the oath of House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.<\/p>\n

Roque said that because of the separation of powers of the executive and judicial branch of government, the most that Duterte can impose by way of penalty is to remove them from service.<\/p>\n

He also said that despite massive corruption within the bureau, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente still \u201cserves at the pleasure of the President\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll presidential appointees serve at the pleasure of the President.\u00a0Pag wala na pong tiwala, hindi na po sila maninilbihan<\/em>\u00a0(If he no longer trusts them, they will no longer serve),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpastillas\u201d bribery scam refers to the operation at the airport wherein grease money was rolled up in paper, like the wrapper of milk candy.<\/p>\n

Ombudsman Samuel Martires ordered the suspension of over 40 immigration officials following a BI report that there were discrepancies in their statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN), and their salaries.<\/p>\n

The order imposed suspension on the 44 BI personnel, namely: Erwin Orta\u00f1ez; Grifton Medina; Glenn Comia; Benlado Guevarra; Danieve Binsol; Deon Albao; Arlan Edward Mendoza; Anthony Lopez; Cecille Jonathan Orozco; Dennis Robles; Bradford Allen; Vincent Bryan Allas; Rodolfo Magbuhos Jr.; Er German Robin; Gabriel Estacio; Ralph Ryan Garcia; Phol Villanueva; Abdul Fahad Calaca; Danilo Deudor; Mark Macababad; Aurelio Lucero; George Bituin; Salahudin Hadjinoor; Cherry Pie Ricolcol; Chevy Chase Naniong; Carl Jordan Perez; Abdulhafez Hadji Basher; Jeffrey Dale Ignacio; Juan Carlo Gomez;<\/p>\n

Clint John Simene; Jhayson Albelda; Asliyah Maruhom; Jan Christian De Villa; Jessica Anne Salvador; Jennifer Timbreza; Robern Michael Sarmiento; Maria Victoria Jogno; Catherine Mendoza; Lorenz Arlei Bontia; Paul Borja; Hamza Pacasum; Manuel Sarmiento; Fidel Mendoza; and Dimple Mahyumi Mallari.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s distributing pastillas with rolled up money to 40 suspended immigration officials is \u201csymbolic\u201d of his anger …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":274756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-274754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274757,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274754\/revisions\/274757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}