Lacson, Sotto vow discipline for Cabinet

MANILA, Philippines — Cabinet officials will not be spared from prosecution if caught engaged in illegal activities under the leadership of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III if they win as president and vice president, respectively, in the 2022 elections.

“If we become president and vice president of this country, Filipinos may yet witness the spectacle of a Cabinet member turned rogue being arrested for extortion. This is the kind of discipline that the Lacson-Sotto leadership intends to instill in government officials,” Lacson said on Twitter yesterday.

“It’s about time we make example of high-ranking officials. We cannot fire the small fry just to let the big fish continue to extort,” Lacson said in an interview on Radyo 5.

He also pushed anew for the digitalization and interoperability of systems in government agencies to minimize corruption.

Lacson said while government agencies, such as the Bureau of Customs (BOC), are computerized, their systems are not yet automated so human intervention and red tape are still possible.

“If you just change the personnel, they will be lost in their new assignments. Worse, if they get bitten by the corruption bug, the problem starts all over again,” he said.

Lacson noted that several BOC personnel would merely observe the new head for a few weeks to see if he or she has the political will to reject corruption.

“People can reform too, but if they see the new head would give in to corrupt personnel and practices, they will all backslide,” he said.