Palace: Duterte observed 'due diligence' in sacking Sueno

Malacañang on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte observed “due diligence” in sacking Ismael Sueno as secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) over alleged corruption.

"Apparently, the President has done due diligence and so he has checked into the matter and some people – some, you know, and apparently he has taken note of several legally untenable situations," presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella told reporters in a briefing.

"Here's what I can tell you. He, the President, has – is aware that, apparently, he checked into a history of – history of activities of the Secretary. But that's about it, that's about all that I can tell you," he added.

Duterte, however, particularly questioned Sueno regarding the acquisition of Austrian fire trucks during a Cabinet meeting on Monday night, Abella admitted. It was during the meeting that Sueno was dismissed as DILG chief.

"The President seemed to just be interested in establishing whether or not the Secretary had actually engaged in certain activities," Abella said, adding among these activities is a supposed foreign trip.

Duterte "open and frank"

Abella refused to give more details about how Sueno was dismissed, saying the public will know in time.

"The President was quite open and frank in questioning Secretary, initially, in fact almost at the beginning of the meetings. However, he set it aside and we finished the meeting which took about several hours actually and then it was only afterwards that he made a closing statement," he said.

"You know, for some reason, I just caught the tail end of it but basically he said that he had – that the Secretary was being let go," he added.

Abella said Sueno did not question Duterte's announcement. "There was a short exchange and then that was it… It was not a heated exchange. It was just a conversation," he said.

Private meeting?

A GMA News source, however, said Sueno tried to ask for a private meeting with Duterte, but the president turned him down.

The source said Sueno told Duterte he was not informed about the irregularities in the fire truck deal, but the president told him the Office of the President had already studied the contract and found it anomalous.

READ: What happened in the cabinet mtg when Pres. Duterte fired DILG's Sueno accdg to a source @gmanews pic.twitter.com/KXD7f1gTJJ

— Joseph Morong (@Joseph_Morong) April 4, 2017

The source also said that Duterte was peeved by Sueno allegedly telling people in the DILG that they should be loyal to him, not to the President. Sueno had denied this.

The source also said those present during the Cabinet meeting were  "dumbfounded" with Duterte's decision to dismiss Sueno.

Sueno has already denied the accusation and maintained that he was not corrupt. —KBK, GMA News