UPDATED: Duterte fires Budget undersecretary over corruption allegations, 3 gov’t employees for “influence-peddling”

(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte has yet again fired a high-ranking government official and three government employees for corruption and influence-peddling.

In a speech on Thursday, Duterte did not name the high-ranking official who he said was engaged in corruption, but said he fired a Budget undersecretary.

Budget Secretary Ben Diokno later identified him as Gertrudo de Leon.

“Corruption, didn’t I tell you I do not like corruption?…He was lucky because there were so many people. I wanted to slap him. I even stood up to (try to kick him).. I wanted to kick him in the face,” Duterte said.

According to Duterte, apart from the Budget undersecretary, he also dismissed three others.

“There were three employees in my office, influence-peddling…I told you, stop,” he said.

Fired officials

De Leon’s and the three employees’ dismissal comes after President Duterte’s announcement he had sacked two officials of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission for sitting on papers crucial for the construction of a project.

In March, he hinted at firing Peter Tiu Lavina, then chief of the National Irrigation Administration.

Lavina, Duterte’s campaign spokesperson when he ran for the presidency, ended up resigning.

A month later, Duterte fired then-Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno over a questionable firetruck deal.

He said he fired Sueno in a Cabinet meeting after he “lied through his teeth.”

He also fired Maria Chiara Valdez of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization for supposedly allowing the importation of specific rice in the country, a decision that ran counter to the decision made by another agency.

Duterte also ordered then-Information and Communications Technology Secretary Rodolfo Salalima to resign following allegations he favored a telecommunications company over the others.

The President also fired Energy Regulatory Commission chair Jose Vicente Salazar over charges of misconduct, among others.