By Genalyn D. Kabiling
President Duterte’s firing spree is not yet over.
As part of his intensified anti-corruption purge, the President has announced plans to sack another chairman of a government agency, three police generals, and dozens of other cops “maybe this week.”
“I am not a saint. I have also my faults in life. But corruption is a money has never been really an issue even to myself. I am in the thick of firing people,” Duterte said during a closed-door Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. event at the historic landmark Manila Hotel last Thursday.
“I am firing another chairman of an entity in government maybe this week and another set of mga policemen,” he said in a speech released by Malacanang yesterday. “I intend to fire another maybe 70 or 49 policemen and three generals for corruption in the next few days,” he added.
The President has renewed his firm resolve to weed out corrupt officials in government, saying “this is really a purging regime.”
He insisted that he does not tolerate corruption, which he claimed has pulled down the nation for many years. “I think that I have been spending a lot of time just to clean up government. I would consume four years for the time that I would be there,” he said.
“I have fired so many before and I will fire so many of you now and in the future.”
The President recently sacked several officials over frequent foreign travels and other anomalies. The last official to be fired was Maritime Industry Authority Administrator Marcial Amaro III for his 24 foreign travels in the last two years.
The President’s next target in the anti-corruption purge will be local government officials. “The President stated that he will continue with the process of cleansing the bureaucracy,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said recently.
“He will now turn more of his attention to local government units, including the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao,” he added.
