PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he was not misinformed when he fired former Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno over allegations of corruption.
“I could never be misinformed. I am a lawyer,” Duterte told reporters at Camp Ricarte in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan..
Duterte maintained he would not tolerate even a “whiff” of corruption in the government. .
Speaking in a mix of Filipino and English, Duterte said “the first whiff of corruption, even if not true, goodbye. There are many replacements in government; we don’t run short of that. We have enough talent, those honest with integrity,” he said.
Maintaining his innocence over a Rosenbauer fire truck issue that cost him his Cabinet post, Sueno said he had become a “sacrificial lamb” and a “victim of intrigue,” noting he felt embarrassed after he was dismissed as DILG chief.
Sueno also raised the possibility the President might have been “misinformed” about the firetrucks deal.
Without the chance to explain his side, Sueno sent a copy to Malacañang to explain his side on the corruption allegations against him.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III told reporters he had known previously that Sueno would be sacked from his post.
He told a news forum at the Senate that President Rodrigo Duterte himself talked about this during their trip to Myanmar and Thailand last month.
“I knew that the DILG Secretary was going because I’ve heard it from the President himself during our trip. But I didn’t tell anyone,” he said.
Sotto was part of the Philippine delegation who joined the President’s official visits to the two countries last March 19. The President fired Sueno only last April 3.
He said there were pieces of information that reached the President about Sueno which they did not know.
“The bottom line here is he has lost trust [in] these employees or [in] these appointees. As long as he has lost trust already, let us not talk about the information he knows about these people, whether good or bad,” Sotto said.
He added the fact that it took over two weeks for the President to dismiss Sueno was proof he had validated whatever allegations against him.
However, Sotto refused to say if the corruption allegations against Sueno could be one of the reasons why the President fired him.
He said he was not authorized to disclose what they discussed during the trip as they were only two or three when the President talked about Sueno.
The senator noted the President was the appointing power; thus, he had a prerogative to remove his own appointees anytime he wanted.
“Even if he suddenly dislikes your face today, he can fire you. That’s the prerogative of the President,” he said.
But Sotto said Duterte mentioned he would not have second thoughts firing his men once he heard even a whiff of corruption against them.
Earlier, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said he would inquire into the case of Sueno and asked for evidence, if any.
Pimentely is currently in Bangladesh attending the 136th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union..
He described Sueno, former South Cotabato Governor, as a “good, low-key, and religious” person.
He said the public should not be quick to judge the former Cabinet official as corrupt.
He said there should be no assumption that Sueno was removed from the Cabinet due to corruption.
“The ground used by the President in terminating Mike Sueno is loss of trust and confidence. That is not necessarily a charge of corruption,” he said.
“That is a very subjective ground within the power of the President and that could be triggered by almost anything. We should not jump into the conclusion that Sueno was terminated due to corruption,” added Pimentel.
Sueno is also the former national chairman of ruling PDP-Laban, where Pimentel sits as president. Duterte is party national chairman.
Sueno had explained the Rosenbauer fire trucks was an executive facility agreement between the Philippine government and the Austrian government and the first and second supply contracts were merely implementations of the said agreement.
Sueno said it was the late Jesse Robredo who signed the first Rosenbauer fire truck agreement composed of 76 units which were delivered in 2013.
“The payment of these 76 units will only commence eight years after the delivery so that will only be by 2021. How can I order the payment of these fire trucks when the payment will only start four years from now?” Sueno explained.
He added it was former DILG Secretary Mel Senen S. Sarmiento who signed the second delivery of 76 fire trucks in April 2016.
For this second tranche, Duterte issued a Special Authority to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III confirming and agreeing to the Rosenbauer agreements.
Sueno claimed Dominguez consequently gave the authority to him to represent the Philippine government to travel to Austria, inspect the goods prior to delivery at the port of origin, and sign all pertinent documents.
Also in the Senate, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Duterte should not just dismiss Sueno but also file charges against him.
“If you have anything solid, you just don’t fire, but file a case. You should show this is a message on how serious you are,” Trillanes told a news forum in the Senate..
He downplayed Sueno’s dismissal as a mere “convenient excuse” to bring in a new appointee to a post, for which former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. was earlier considered.