Despite his frustrations over corruption in the government, President Rodrigo Duterte will not actually resign, his spokesperson Harry Roque said Tuesday.
Although Duterte revealed Monday night he offered to resign, Roque said the President will use his last two years in power to weed out corruption in the government.
“The President's resignation did not push through. I think he would no longer resign because he only has 2 years left in power, but he will use that time to cleanse the different government agencies,” the spokesman said.
Instead of resigning, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Dutere only needs to be consistent in applying the current anti-graft and corruption laws to both friends and foes.
Lacson said Duterte’s strong words and warnings may work, but only when followed by concrete actions.
“There is no better way. Appearing before a congressional hearing may not be necessary (as the President volunteered to do),” said Lacson.
He noted that the Senate is already proposing a bill to give him “Bayanihan-like” emergency powers to address red tape in government.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said it should be the corrupt in the government who should think of resigning, and not the President.
“He was elected by the country and he cannot turn his back on his specified task by the Filipinos. I don't think he means it,” Sotto added.
Duterte, in a public address on Monday night, said he was done with the bureaucracy and corruption in government.
"I offered to resign as President," Duterte said. "There is no end to corruption. It is difficult to stop.”
It was not the first time for the long-time Davao City mayor to make such a remark.
"He (Duterte) is serious about his expression of exasperation. He seriously has had it with corruption,” Roque said.
Following the President's remarks on Monday, the hashtag #PaalamDuterte became a trending topic on microblogging site Twitter.
Roque simply dismissed the viral hashtag, claiming that enemies of the government are behind it.
“We know them as the enemies of the government, those who are power-hungry, those who cannot wait for 2022, and those who lost their jobs because they make money off from the government,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the President should order agencies to include in the 2021 national budget their anti-red tape pledges, “including the speed by which they will process a document.”
Recto explained that the national budget is not all numbers, as attached to every agency’s proposed appropriations “is a table of performance guarantees.”
“This is the so-called ‘promissory note’ of an agency that is part and parcel of its budget request. Under our budgeting system, the funds it will get is linked to what it should deliver,” Recto said.
“On paper, there is peso-to-performance correspondence. And these deliverables become part of the General Appropriations Act. That is part of the law,” Recto said.