Philippine leader dismisses appointed agency heads

By Hader Glang

ZAMBOANGA CITY, the Philippines (AA) – President Rodrigo Duterte has declared vacant all presidentially-appointed chief posts at Philippine agencies as part of efforts to rid the public service of corruption.

“If you are there because of the presidential appointments, I will declare all your positions all throughout the country vacant. You know why? Until now, in my provincial visits, I still hear corruption being committed by people especially in the regulatory agencies,” he said Sunday.

Duterte has vowed to curb corruption and pursue transparency since winning the May 9 election, pledging to curb corruption and criminality within three to six months.

During Sunday’s press conference, he singled out the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board as among the agencies riddled with alleged corruption, according to the state-run Philippine News Agency.

“The LTO and those who are appointed to that positions of LTO except the career, consider your positions vacant as of this hour. All of them… It will number in thousands,” he added. “Consider yourself in the crucible of truth about corruption in this country.”

He underlined that assistants and deputies under the chief posts declared vacant could take over operations until he reaches a decision on whether or not he would “dispose” of the heads of government offices.

The president said that his cabinet was exempt as they had been appointed upon his inauguration June 30 and could not have been corrupted yet.

He stressed his “hate” of corruption, saying, “I do not want to give the slightest headache to my fellow human being.”

Last week, Duterte had threatened to name officials involved in graft, which he called an “endemic” in the country, the Philstar news website reported.

“I think there is a need really to purge. I don’t want to transgress the rules or ignore due process… But it’s hard to remove something that has been there. You need a new generation of workers to do the job,” he was quoted as saying Monday.

“I will really be harsh, double the word, in the coming days because it seems that my appeal that this would be a clean government is not registering at all in the grey matter between the ears of some people in government.”