By Genalyn D. Kabiling
The plan to terminate a government official was put on hold pending a review by President Duterte of the legislative charter of the agency the unnamed official is heading.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said he was ordered to defer from identifying the official who faces dismissal on Wednesday morning.
At the Palace news conference, Roque said he read a text from the President at 7 a.m., “instructing me to hold in abeyance announcement of who it is that the President will sack next.”
“When I inquired from PMS (Presidential Management Staff), what they said was they gave the President a copy of the legislative charter of the agency headed by the officer. And the President was reviewing that legislative charter of that agency,” he added.
When pressed by journalists if the official has been fired or not, Roque replied that as long as an announcement has not been made, then that person has not been fired.
“Presidential appointees serve at the pleasure of the President. The President does not even need to cite any good cause because that is the nature of a presidential appointment,” he said.
He said government officials must “serve the Republic, that they must lead modest lives, that they must comply with the laws against graft and corruption.”
Prior to receiving the text message from the higher-up, Roque admitted that he was supposed to announce that “he (the official) was terminated.”
Realizing he let slip the gender of the unnamed official, the lawyer told the reporters: “Kayo talaga, ang galing niyo. Okay, but anyway, I didn’t say anything about identity.”
Roque said “a legal written document” was already being prepared but has been held in abeyance. He also denied that the official was from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.