President Duterte pushes filing of charges against 64 Customs officials, employees for corruption

President Rodrigo Duterte speaking at the celebration of the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) Day on July 11, Thursday, in Malacanang. (Photo grabbed from RTVM video)

(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte revealed that he would be firing 64 officials and employees of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for their involvement in corruption, daring them to resign first before he makes his move.

“I was reading the dossier from all intelligence sources, if I can dismiss them, I will be dismissing something like 64 Customs employees,” he said.

“It’s a simple case, you resign or I file charges,” Duterte said shortly after reading his speech during the celebration of the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) Day on July 11 in Malacanang.

He vowed to file charges against the 64 BOC officials and employees who have been accused of corruption.

“We will be filing charges. 64 of them. So at this early, they might also be learning what’s going on here.

“They are also hearing us,” he said of the 64 BOC officials and employees he had ordered to be placed on floating status.

“We are workers of government and we serve the people. Period,” he reminded them.

The President said that he had also invited these BOC officials and employees to report to Malacanang in obedience to the rule on the “right to be heard.”

“I the meantime, that their cases are being heard, in obedience to the rule on the right to be heard, I want them to be here in Malacanang,” he said.

“Help me craft new implementing rules of how not to rob a country … properly,” he said in jest.

“So I will be asking them to report here.”

Duterte said that with this recent impending removal of the 64 BOC personnel, he “would have cut down corruption by a third or by one-half” based on information from sources he had commissioned.