Rio says he offered to resign from DICT because he was being “sidelined”

(Eagle News)–Information and Communications Undersecretary Eliseo Rio Jr. said the principal reason he offered to resign was because he felt he was no longer needed in the department.

He said his resignation had nothing to do with supposed anomalies in the disbursement of confidential funds of the department.

In the first place, he said in a Facebook post he “never said  there is an anomaly involving said confidential funds as in fact, I have no first-hand knowledge on how they were used or spent.”

“Considering that I have been sidelined and kept out of the loop for several months on the decision-making processes regarding vital national programs and projects under my functional areas of responsibility as Undersecretary for Operations, I have decided to offer my resignation to the President,” he said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has, however, yet to act on his resignation letter.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo has said Duterte would meet Rio to hear what he has to say, but that there was no schedule for this yet.

According to Rio, so far,  Secretary Gregorio Honasan  has designated him Undersecretary for Operations in-charge of National Broadband Backbone and Free Wifi In Public Places.

Earlier, the House minority bloc filed a resolution seeking a probe into the disbursement of the confidential funds after Rio announced he would resign.