Bam: Duterte's 'recycling' of officials gives mixed signals on corruption

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is sending mixed signals on his fight against corruption with his practice of reappointing people accused of anomalies in government, Sen. Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV said on Monday.

Aquino, who is a member of the Liberal Party and belongs to the Senate minority bloc, said that Duterte's "recycling" of officials after being involved in anomalies showes a "double standard" on his part.

"The president is sending mixed messages again, this time on the issue of corruption," Aquino said in a statement. Aquino's cousin, former President Benigno Aquino III, was also criticized for seeming to protect members of his Cabinet who had been accused of corruption or of incompetence.

"There is a clear double standard in the continuous recycling of officials involved in anomalies such as Nicanor Faeldon, Jason Aquino and others," Aquino said in Filipino.

Faeldon, who resigned as chief of the Bureau of Customs following the discovery that billions of pesos of illegal drugs slipped past Manila's port during his time, was reappointed to become a deputy administrator of the Office of the Civil Defense in December last year.

Despite the controversy and his previous vow to fire officials on whiff of corruption, Duterte stood by Faeldon and said that he believed that the former soldier was an honest man.

Faeldon was also accused by Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson of receiving P100 million as a welcome gift upon assuming his Customs post. He denied the allegation.

Jason Aquino, the administrator of the National Food Authority, meanwhile was urged to resign following the panic that caused the rise in the prices of rice.

The NFA, under Aquino, has been under fire after it was found that it had less than a day's worth of government subsidized rice left in its warehouses.

Despite these criticisms, Duterte has not fired Aquino and instead removed the administrator's chief critic, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., from the NFA Council.

Malacañang also stressed that Duterte was not obliged to justifiy the appointment of sacked Social Security System Commissioner Jose Gabriel "Pompee" La Viña as a Tourism undersecretary.

According to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, La Viña was terminated over costly project proposals and his vilification of fellow SSS officials.

"As I said, it is a presidential prerogative. I don't really have to explain, justify an act which is inherently executively nature and subject absolutely to the president's discretion," Roque said in a media briefing last month.

On March 7, Duterte appointed sacked Presidential Commissioner for the Urban Poor commissioner Melissa Aradanas as deputy secretary general of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.

Aradanas, a cousin of the president's common law partner Honeylet Avanceña, was fired by Duterte last year because of "unnecessary junkets" abroad.

Sen. Aquino said that if the government was really serious in fighting corruption Duterte should not reappoint individuals involved in corruption and should instead be sued in court.