Some officials fired over alleged corruption get new posts

Some government officials who were fired by President Rodrigo Duterte over alleged involvement in corruption later on got reappointed to a different post, Presidential Anti-Corruption Commissioner Manuelito Luna said.

Interviewed on "Bawal ang Pasaway" on Tuesday, Luna said that their validation of corruption allegations sometimes shows that the concerned government official was not really involved in wrongful practices.

“After validation, it appeared na wala silang kinalaman doon sa alleged corruption activities, kaya they were tapped again by the Executive at nilagay sa ibang posisyon,” he said.

“Parang na-hype lang ‘yung kanilang kaso, [but] it turned out to be, hindi pala talaga sila ultimately involved.”

However, the chairperson of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Department of Political Science observed otherwise.

“Ang tendency kasi ay kadalasan, ang naisasapubliko lang na mga cases or possible cases ng corruption… ay ‘yung mga hindi nila kaalyado o kaya mga critics ng administration,” Dr. Maria Ela Atienza said.

“Ang labas no’n, very action-oriented ang pangulo… [Pero] after a few months, nawawala na ‘yung attention ng media, nawawala na ‘yung attention ng public, makikita natin na nare-reappoint.”

Watch renowned economist Solita Monsod’s interview with Manuel to learn more. —Julia Mari Ornedo/LDF, GMA News