Duterte defends Calida anew over government deals

SEOUL – President Duterte defended anew Solicitor General Jose Calida, who has received flak over the multimillion-peso government contracts bagged by a security agency owned by his family.

Speaking to at least 2,000 Filipino workers here on Sunday night, Duterte said the opposition associated with the Liberal Party (LP) could be behind the ouster move against Calida over allegations of conflict of interest. 

“Alam mo itong mga yellow, matagal nang natunaw. Wala nang yellow ngayon. Ang yelo sa Bisaya (These yellows, they melted long ago. There is no more yellow now. Yelo in Visayan) is ice,” the President said.

Yellow symbolized the color of the LP and its allies.

Duterte said critics wanted to besmirch Calida’s reputation amid his filing of a quo warranto petition against ousted chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Duterte reiterated that he would not fire Calida from his post and would not bow to pressure to place the government’s top lawyer under investigation.

The President said Calida inherited the security agency from his father long before he was named solicitor general.

“That is their family business. I know that because he is from Davao,” the President said.

“Why should I fire him? Anything in government as long as there is bidding, there is no problem, that’s OK if he won the bidding,” Duterte, a lawyer and a former prosecutor, added.

The President maintained that he is serious in weeding out corrupt government officials.

Meanwhile, dismissed government corporate counsel Rudolf Jurado compared himself with Calida over the millions of excess allowances of their office flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).

Jurado lamented that he suffered a different fate when he did not even accept the supposedly excess allowances from state corporations.

“I refused to accept the monthly allowances that I was supposed to receive from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) from April 2017 up to May 2018 amounting to P500,000 or even more if we will include allowances coming from various water district clients, which were 350 more or less,” Jurado said in a statement sent to The STAR over the weekend.

Calida, who allegedly received P8.37 million in allowances in 2017, which exceeded the 50-percent salary limit by P7.46 million based on the COA report, has kept the President’s trust.

The COA report said 15 officials, including Calida, reportedly got a total of P10.774 million in excess allowances last year.

Calida has defended the allowances, saying that the OSG law as well as several decrees and orders allowed them to receive allowances “without qualifications.”

In its report, the COA said five OGCC lawyers received excess allowances totaling P621,717.73 last year.

Jurado was fired by President Duterte recently for granting a franchise to the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone. – With Edu Punay