President Rodrigo Duterte threatened sacked employees of the Bureau of Customs that they would face corruption charges unless they resigned.
On Thursday night, Duterte met with sacked workers and officials of the Customs administrative unit, whom he had ordered placed on “floating” status and detailed to the Malacañang grounds.
“The President has been forthright in telling these customs officials and employees that corruption has no place under his watch. He told them that consistent with due process, they will be given their day in court,” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
“Administrative charges over allegations of corrupt practices in office will be filed against them before the Office of the Ombudsman, unless they opt to resign, and the prosecutors will ask for their immediate suspension,” he added.
Panelo did not go into detail on the charges being contemplated by the government.
Duterte, Panelo said, assured the Customs employees “he would not begrudge them if they would avail [themselves] of legal remedies to question their removal from office.”
Panelo said that pending the filing of cases, the workers will be on “floating status without authority to act on official matters.”
“Let this serve as a reminder to all those officials or employees in the government that they cannot escape liability or accountability for their acts of corruption under the Duterte administration,” Panelo said.
Duterte announced the sacking of 64 Customs employees last week, saying: “Someone whispered to me. You want to remove corruption, mayor? Remove all of them.” (PressONE.ph)