Duterte ensures due process for Cabinet execs facing raps

MANILA,Philippines — The two Cabinet members who are being investigated for alleged corruption should be accorded due process, President Duterte said.

Duterte confirmed that he has been informed about the two officials accused of irregularities but he has yet to see the results of the probe.

“I have seen it (complaint) and they are investigating. I have yet to have the result,” Duterte told reporters late Tuesday in Malacañang.

“If you are corrupt, I will summon you to my office and we will have a one-on-one talk. If there is (an anomaly), I’ll fire you. That’s for sure. But let us observe due process,” he added.

Last August, the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), the body formed by Duterte to look into allegations of irregularities against his appointees, revealed that it has received complaints against two Cabinet members.

PACC commissioner and spokesman Greco Belgica said the two officials, whom he refused to identify, have been cooperating with the investigation. 

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. defended yesterday presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo for issuing statements on foreign policy.

Locsin said senators asked why Panelo also speaks on foreign policy when only Duterte and the DFA secretary make foreign policy. 

“Two reasons: 1. He is presidential spokesman and shares with media President’s thoughts including on foreign policy. The President and I MAKE foreign policy. 2. I am constrained by military/diplomatic sources for info; so I cannot react to media,” Locsin tweeted. 

“Plus I’ve never been a media people person, as my colleagues in media saw in Cory’s time and Congress. Media is fortunate in having Sal who loves engaging them. We never contradicted each other,” he said.

Panelo, Locsin said, is “one of a few people who stand by the President through thick and thin, and stick their necks out for him when he is unfairly treated by media or outright traduced which is a cottage industry.” 

During the Senate deliberation on the P24.216-billion proposed 2020 budget of the DFA on Monday night, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon asked why Panelo has been issuing statements on foreign policy.

Maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal slammed on Nov. 4 Panelo’s statement on the harassment of an all-Filipino crew Greek-owned vessel by a Chinese naval ship near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal that it is “not a concern” for the Philippines.

Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, said Panelo should be stopped from speaking “out of turn” on foreign policy matters.

Panelo dismissed the incident because it did not involve a Philippine vessel.

“This is just so WRONG on several levels. When will someone stop Panelo from speaking out of turn on matters of foreign policy?” Batongbacal said in a tweet. - With Pia Lee-Brago