Duterte says he won’t meddle in Bautista graft case

PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. Duterte on Monday said he will not interfere in the corruption allegations against Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Andres D. Bautista, who was accused by his wife, Patricia Paz-Bautista, of amassing ill-gotten wealth.

Ms. Bautista, along with her lawyers, reportedly met Mr. Duterte at the presidential palace on July 26 where she disclosed to him all she knew about her husband’s “unexplained wealth,” which she said amounts to nearly P1 billion.

She said Mr. Duterte promised to help her in “whatever way he could.”

Mr. Bautista, who claims to have met with the President on Aug. 1 wherein his wife was also invited, denied the accusations and said the corruption complaints against him are “false” and politically motivated.

In a media interview, Mr. Duterte said he summoned Mr. Bautista after hearing the allegations of the poll chief’s wife.

But he made it clear that he is not in the business of “prosecuting” officials appointed by his predecessor. “I was not meddling,” he said.

“I asked him to fix his quarrel with the wife. That’s the thing that I could do as a lawyer. I received him, I said, ‘ You talk to your wife,’” Mr. Duterte recalled. “Leave me out,” he remarked. In a press briefing on Monday, Mr. Bautista claimed that the target of the attack is not just him but the Comelec as an institution and the integrity of last year’s national and local elections.—