Abella ‘unaware’ Palace offered me a DILG post —Diño

Former Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman Martin Diño on Thursday said that Presidential spokesman  Ernesto Abella was not present at a meeting in Malacañang a month ago where President Rodrigo Duterte offered to him the position of undersecretary for barangay affairs, which he said he finally accepted last Wednesday.

Diño made the statement a day after Abella announced that the President has yet to appoint someone for the position at the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

On Wednesday, Diño confirmed that he was offered the undersecretary post, and that he accepted the offer.

But on the same day, Abella said, “As of this date, the President has not appointed Mr. Martin Diño to any position in the DILG or in any instrumentality of government.”

In an interview Thursday morning on dzBB, Diño clarified that Abella was not among the people present at a meeting with the President where the position was offered to him.

"A month ago, pinatawag ako nina Secretary Bong Go at  Executive Secretary Salvador Midialdea sa Malacañang ... tapos inalok sa akin itong undersecretary for barangay affairs. Pagkatapos noon, pinakausap ako sa ating Presidente. So tinanggap ko yan, anyway forte ko [ang trabaho].  Yan ang katotohanan, hindi ko sinabi na [I was appointed]. Ang sinabi ko inalok ako [offered]," Diño said.

"Wala si Secretary Abella doon sa meeting na iyon (Abella was not present at that meeting)." 

A former barangay chairman, Diño said he has accepted the job that was first disclosed by Acting DILG Secretary Catalino Cuy.

Once he assumed the new post, Diño said, he is going to direct all barangays to submit a report on the illegal drug situation in their area within one week or risk facing sanctions.

Diño gave up the SBMA post after Duterte, through an executive order, merged the positions of SBMA administrator and SBMA chairperson and subsequently appointed former SBMA administrator Wilma Eisma to take over his post.

In 2015, Diño, a former Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chairperson, withdrew his Certificate of Candidacy to give way for Duterte in the 2016 presidential polls. —LBG, GMA News