Duterte fires Government Corporate Counsel Jurado

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday fired Rudolf Philip Jurado as the government’s corporate counsel over a legal opinion that the chief executive described as a “stupid proposition.”

The chief executive blasted Jurado for the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel’s interpretation of the law that favored Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and allowed it to grant a 75-year casino permit.

“May I call the government corporate counsel now. Are you here? If you are here, you show yourself to me. You son of a b****. You are fired. I don’t need you,” the president said in Filipino and English in his remarks at the ceremonial enactment of the Ease of Doing Business Act at the Palace.

 “When you are granted a franchise to conduct gambling in a certain facility, it does not include farming out that franchise to other cities and provinces. If that’s the case, then you can ramble on to give permits beyond the shores of Luzon and you can do it in Siasi, Jolo. You are just like [the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp.] operating an independent entity with the same powers to grant everything. You fool,” Duterte said.

In a legal opinion, the OGCC said that APECO was allowed to operate outside of the Aurora Economic Zone as long as it does so in areas controlled by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

Jurado had also been under fire for alleged irregularities over the legal opinion.

The OGCC acts as lawyer for government-owned and -controlled corporations, or GOCCs.

Last week, Duterte indicated that he might dismiss the government corporate counsel but did not elaborate on the reasons.

Jurado, a lawyer with the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, was appointed in April 2017.

Duterte also said then that he was firing officials of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., the government agency allowed to grant gambling franchises, for giving contracts to foreigners for 75 years.

It is not yet clear if the president is talking of the same case.

Excess allowances

Before his firing, Jurado issued a 13-page memorandum on May 11 informing Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra about the Commission on Audit’s findings about the excess allowances received by OGCC lawyers in 2017.

It was said that the lawyers received some of their allowances directly from government-owned and –controlled corporations without deductions or payment of taxes.

The president has fired a string of officials during the past weeks supposedly because of corrupt activities in their office.

However, despite this, the government is yet to file charges against these supposedly erring officials.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that it is up to the Office of the Ombudsman to file the cases.