Palace: Cam can resign if she can’t stand corruption

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) board director Sandra Cam should resign instead of virtually challenging President Duterte to remove her from her post after publicly declaring that corruption prevails in the agency, Malacañang said yesterday.

“She does not have to wait for her relief by the President. She can tender her resignation if she cannot stand the alleged corruption within the PCSO,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

The chief presidential legal counsel also asked Cam to file charges and submit proof of her allegations before the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), which is under the Office of the President, against certain PCSO officials she accused of corruption “so it would be acted on accordingly.”

The President will order a full-blown investigation as soon as formal charges are filed, Panelo said. 

He noted that Cam aired some serious allegations during her press conference on Thursday “on what she deemed irregular in the internal decision-making process of her agency.” 

Cam alleged that erring small town lottery firms, many of them led by retired military or police generals, failed to remit P10.7 billion in earnings to the PCSO for the first five months of the year alone.

Panelo assured the public that Duterte remains serious in the campaign against corruption.