Palace: Santiago fired due to junkets

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte asked former Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) chairman Dionisio Santiago to resign because of allegations that he used taxpayers’ money for unnecessary foreign trips, Malacañang said yesterday.

Citing a complaint letter by the DDB Employees’ Union – which the group, however, has denied to have issued – presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Santiago has been accused of bringing family members, six of his closest employees and a “girl Friday” to Austria.

The former DDB chief was also accused of bringing a mistress and selected employees to the United States and having unexplained wealth.

“I would like to confirm that General Santiago was let go by the President not only because of his statements on the mega rehab center being a mistake. He was also let go because of complaints that (he) was using taxpayers’ money for junkets abroad,” Roque said in a press briefing.

“There were also complaints that General Santiago may have accepted consideration from major drug players,” he added. 

Santiago, however, debunked Roque’s allegations that he spent government money on his official trips where he supposedly brought along his wife.

He said he has pertinent travel documents for the official trips and that his wife paid for her trip. They only met there but she was not part of the delegation.

Santiago also hit Roque for releasing unvalidated information, which makes him unfit for his position.

He added that Roque named the wrong Santiago when the latter alleged that the former DDB chief received a house from a Mindanao drug lord.

Roque said Duterte’s move was “a very strong message” to the bureaucracy that he would not tolerate unnecessary travels abroad.

“That shows his resolve against graft and corruption. As far as he is concerned, you don’t even have to be proven,” the presidential spokesman said. 

“If you’re tainted in any way by corruption, he will not hesitate to fire individuals. He has done so many times in the past, and General Santiago is only the latest of them,” he added. 

Earlier this month, Duterte said he asked Santiago to quit because he was offended by his remark that the mega rehabilitation center built in Nueva Ecija was a “miscalculation.” 

Santiago criticized the construction of the 100,000-square meter rehabilitation center in Nueva Ecija, saying families of patients may find it difficult to visit the facility. 

The President said Santiago should have informed him about his concerns instead of talking to the media.

In an Oct. 25 letter to Duterte, the DDB Employees’ Union said Santiago allowed a big delegation composed of himself, his family and six “unqualified and favorite” employees to travel to Vienna, Austria to attend an ordinary narcotic drug intersessional meeting at the expense of government.

The union said the delegation included a certain Edith Julie Mendoza, who it described as Santiago’s “girl Friday” and “coffee server.”  

It also alleged that Santiago went to the US with his mistress and favorite DDB employees supposedly to attend a briefing on the follow-up by the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. 

“For your information, for both meetings, attendance only requires the presence of (the) DDB chairman in the official invitation sent by UN Secretariat and nothing more. This is an extravagant use of government resources and abuse of authority,” the DDB Employees’ Union said.

The union claimed that Santiago had named his predecessor Benjamin Reyes as acting chairman of DDB while he was on a “junket spree.”

Duterte fired Reyes last May for contradicting his claim about the number of drug users in the country. The President said there were four million drug users in the country but Reyes pegged the number at only 1.8 million. 

The union said the designation of Reyes was “condemnable” and “a slap on the President’s face.” 

Reyes, according to the group, has been continuously performing his job and receiving salary and allowances at the DDB despite the dismissal order.

The DDB employees also called Santiago a “liability” to the Duterte administration, citing a News 5 report which allegedly claimed that the general was a recipient of a big Ozamiz mansion given by the Parojinogs, a clan accused of protecting drug syndicates. 

Santiago, the union claimed, had unexplained wealth, owned a fleet of cars and expensive properties. 

Asked if the complaint against Santiago was verified, Roque said it was overtaken by events because Duterte had decided to ask Santiago to resign.  

Last week, Duterte said he would fire government officials who have been traveling abroad without the necessary travel order. 

“There are a lot for next week to be fired. Those who went out of the country to waste the money without the permission of the authorities, in this case, the President, I’m sure,” the President said in a speech in Davao City last Saturday.

Roque said the firing of officials who enjoyed lavish foreign trips would not prevent the ombudsman from conducting criminal investigation. 

“The Office of the President only has jurisdiction over the administrative aspect of the case. The criminal aspect will have to be taken up by the ombudsman, given that all these officials are within the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan,” he said. 

“It’s ultimately the ombudsman that will conduct the preliminary investigation,” he added.

Surprised

Meanwhile, DDB Employees’ Union president Joan Desiderio said members of the union were surprised that their association was mentioned by Roque in the corruption allegations against Santiago.

“We explicitly deny that the letter came from us. We were surprised that the briefing mentioned that the complaint came from us, that it came from the DDB Union. It did not come from us,” Desiderio said in a phone interview.

She said she talked to Priscilla Herrera, the lone signatory in the supposed complaint letter, who also denied that she wrote the letter addressed to Duterte.

Herrera, an executive assistant with the DDB for years, is not a member of the DDB-EU, Desiderio clarified

She added that while the union supports Duterte’s campaign against corrupt officials, these allegations should still be validated.

“We don’t want to dwell on the issue. We think (former) chairman Santiago should answer that allegation. We are not in a position to answer,” Desiderio said.

“On our part, we are not in the position to say na may (that there is) corruption during his time. I’m not privy to comment on that. Ang concern lang namin (Our only concern) is it seems that the letter came from us,” she added.

Still, Desiderio explained that the trip to UN headquarters for the 5th Commission on Narcotic Drugs Intersessional Meeting was an official one and this is a yearly invitation extended to the chairman of the DDB.

She also denied that Santiago brought along his supposed mistress during the trip.

As for the Commission on Narcotic Drugs to the Special Session of the General Assembly on the World Drug Problem in New York, the invitation supposedly came from Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano. – Romina Cabrera