By Cielito M. Reganit
President Rodrigo R. Duterte meets with Japanese foreign affairs officials led by (from right to left) Minister of Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida, Ambassador of Japan to the Philippines Kazuhide Ishikawa, and Southeast and Southwest Asian Affairs Department Director General Kazuya Nashida at the Executive Room of the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City on August 11. (MNS photo)
MANILA (PNA) – President Rodrigo R. Duterte said on Monday he is mulling a nationwide purge to rid the Land Transportation Office (LTO) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) of widespread corruption.
“Itong minsan, magpapasyal-pasyal ako ng probinsiya, endemic talaga ang graft and corruption. I really do not know why other people would insist on doing it until now,” he said during his speech before 42 new appointees sworn into office at Malacañang.
“Itong LTFRB, pati LTO all over, they’re still at it and to think that I placed there, si General [Edgar] Galvante and [Martin] Delgra, he’s a lawyer from Davao. Talagang itong mga tao na ito ay with proven competence and integrity. But hindi talaga nila ma-control, from the central government down the line doon sa mga regional. Eh nandiyan pa rin iyong… ganoon pa rin,” he said.
He cited his meeting with Cagayan De Oro City businessmen sometime last week wherein they fielded the same complaint – corruption at the LTO and LTFRB.
“I suppose that this is true, universal throughout the country except for minor exceptions,” the President noted.
“Sabi ko iyong gobyerno, I think there is a need really to purge. I do not want to transgress Civil Service rules, I do not want to ignore due process, which I loathe to do. Pero, apparently itong sa gobyerno mahirap tanggalin iyong nandiyan na, or you need another generation of workers really to do the job,” he said.
“But I would be very, maybe harsh in the coming days because it seems that my appeal — that this would be a clean government — is not registering at all in the grey matter between the ears of some people in government,” the President said.