Risa Hontiveros dares Duterte to fire Calida over gov’t deals

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Monday challenged President President Rodrigo Duterte to fire Solicitor General Jose Calida and file the appropriate charges against him over the multi-million-peso contracts bagged by his family's security agency.

Calida has admitted that his family's Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency, Inc., had been awarded millions of pesos worth of government contracts to secure public offices and parks.

"I challenge President Duterte to prove his anti-corruption rhetoric. I challenge him to not only fire Mr. Calida but also to file the necessary charges against him,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“After all, if he can order the Solicitor General to file a case against the Supreme Court Chief Justice, he can do the same to the former. Otherwise, his anti-corruption stance is pure hogwash," she added.

She said that the removal of Calida and the eventual filing of cases against him were important steps in "rebuilding the country's damaged institutions."

The senator said Calida's dismissal was most appropriate after Vitaliano Aguirre was removed from the Department of Justice.

“We cannot tolerate public officials who coddle and give special treatments to drug lords and high-profile criminals, or in Mr. Calida's case, a Solicitor General who lawyers for plunderers like pork barrel mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and the Marcoses, and a Solicitor General whose personal businesses profit from the government,” Hontiveros said.

Senator Francis Pangilinan earlier called for the resignation of Calida saying there is conflict of interest on the issue.

“It’s a similar conflict of interest case as (resigned Tourism) Secretary Wanda Teo but in his case, more government funds [are] involved  and government agencies of which he is the government lawyer,” Pangilinan said in a text message to GMA News Online when asked if Calida should quit his post.

In post on his Facebook account, the senator said if Teo resigned because the DOT/PTV 4 favored her brothers' TV production company, Calida should also do the same.

“Solicitor General Jose Calida, the lawyer of the government, should resign as well for P150 million worth of government contracts in the Department of Justice, (Office of the Solicitor General is an attached agency), Pagcor, NEDA etc that went to the security guard/agency belonging to his wife and children (kasi nag-resign na daw siya),” Pangilinan said. —NB, GMA News