THE Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission on Saturday confirmed it had recommended investigations against four members of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet.
“It was a confidential report we gave the President. Whatever we received, we worked on them and submitted directly to the President. The President’s instructions is no holy cow, just evidence,” PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica told GMA News Online in an exclusive interview.
Belgica, however, declined to provide the names of the four Cabinet secretaries.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque clarified it was still up to Duterte whether to adopt the PACC’s findings.
Roque said Belgica did not speak for the Office of the President and that Duterte did not mention it yet with him.
“It’s up to the President if he will adopt the PACC’s findings,” Roque said.
The President earlier said he would fire four Cabinet members due to alleged corruption but did not name names.
Roque reiterated that he had not seen the information with regard to the PACC recommendatiom but would announce it as soon as he met with the President.
“Let me be very clear: He [Belgica] doesn’t speak for the Office of the President. What he has is a list of names that they apparently submitted to the President to be acted upon,” Roque said.
He said he did not have details of the PACC’s investigations.
“I have no information on [the names of the four Cabinet members]. That is their recommendation. That is not a decision already of the President,” he added.
Last Wednesday, Roque revealed that Duterte was scheduled to fire an undersecretary.
This followed the resignations of Vitaliano Aguirre II as Justice secretary and Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say.
Duterte had repeatedly said that a “whiff of corruption” was reason enough for him to fire an official even though they may be close to him.
