President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to abolish the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, saying there was nothing to do with the body of water since “it is already clean.”
President Duterte had previously said that the river was “impossible” to revive.
“If the Congress is listening, congressmen”•abolish it. There is nothing to clean in the Pasig River. It is already clean,” Duterte said during the oathtaking of new government officials in Malacañang on Monday night.
“We are wasting time. You are paying people for nothing. They cannot do anything. The Congress better use the money to buy rice or medicines.”
In September, Duterte said he would dissolve the PRRC and put it under the Environment department as he believed the river was “impossible” to revive.
That month, he also fired PRRC chief Jose Antonio Goitia over corruption allegations.
The PRRC is tasked to implement programs and projects to revive the polluted Pasig River that is connected to the Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay, which is undergoing a massive rehabilitation program by a special task force led by the DENR.
The commission was formed in January 1999 under an executive order signed by then President Joseph Estrada.
Duterte appointed Goitia in 2017 to lead the agency, but he said Goitia had spread word about his supposed appointment as Customs collector and asked money from the people within the agency.
In August, Duterte signed EO 90 transferring the chairmanship of the PRRC from the Budget department to the DENR.