President Rodrigo Duterte has fired Government Corporate Counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado for allegedly allowing a 75-year lease agreement to a casino operator within the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone.
“May I call the government corporate counsel now? Are you here? Because if you are here, come out you son of a whore. You are fired,” Duterte said in a speech in Malacañang.
“There are many lawyers there. There are thousands of lawyers waiting,” Duterte added.
The President last week said he intends to fire five more government officials over corruption issues, including Jurado.
Jurado reportedly issued a legal opinion that allowed Apeco to approve a gambling permit and a 75-year lease agreement to a foreign corporation to build a casino-hotel at the rate of P150 per sq.m without public bidding.
Jurado has denied the allegation against him. He said his office “imposed at least 12 conditions that should be complied prior to the execution of the proposed contract of lease to ensure that said contract would not be disadvantageous to the government and compliant to all existing laws and regulations.”
Duterte has been on a firing spree this month as he lamented members of his official family who were found to be involved in graft and corruption.
Duterte earlier sacked Transportation assistant secretary Mark Tolentino and asked Justice Assistant Secretary Moslemen Macarambon Sr. and Public Works Assistant Secretary Tingagun Umpa to resign or be fired.
The President also accepted the resignations of Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo and Tourism Promotions Board chief operating officer Cesar Montano.
The Commission on Audit released a report that Teo appropriated P60 million for commercial spots in her brother’s TV show in a government-owned station, while the TPB’s P80-million Buhay Carinderia project under Montano was found to have failed to undergo proper bidding.
Tolentino was fired for initiating deals with the President’s sister for the Mindanao Railway Project, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said.
“The President said no one in the government should entertain any relatives of the President in connection with any matters that has to do with the government. If you speak to any of the President’s relatives, that’s a basis for you to be fired,” Roque said.
In a previous speech, the President lamented that the officials he had to fire were his own appointees whom he believed could help him effect positive changes in government.
“If you notice, most of those I had to let go are those who are close to me. I’m very sad that they are the very first to go,” he said.
“All those whom I have fired are my people. As I have said, I am not perfect. There is no way of telling that the people who are close to you will do this, that you might ever fall into the trap of believing that you are with a crowd for change,” the President said.
The President earlier sacked Maritime Industry Authority administrator Marcial Amaro III as well as all high officials of the Presidential Commission on Urban Poor for excessive and unnecessary junkets.
