DUTERTE: I KICKED HIM IN THE FACE
Outgoing president recalls assaulting official he claimed tried to pocket 500,000 pesos
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he once kicked a departmental undersecretary in the face for allegedly trying to take a bribe.
The outgoing president said this in his speech at the launching of the digital innovation and modernisation of the Philippine Post Corporation (Philpost), which was reported by Inquirer.net portal on Thursday.
Duterte said the undersecretary had supposedly tried to pocket 500,000 pesos from an agency and that Executive Secretary Salvador “Bingbong” Medialdea had witnessed the incident.
“There’s an undersecretary. When an agency is needing five million pesos, the person volunteered to give money. You know already where it will come from the budget,” he said.
“When I learned of it, I called the undersecretary. And when the person was in front of me, there was a platform in the clubhouse, and I kicked the person in the face. Bingbong was there because they were together in a law office before. That’s how extreme I am. I am unforgiving in times like that,” he added.
In the speech, Duterte also recalled how he summoned Immigration officials who were suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman in connection to the “Pastillas” corruption scheme.
The president said he wanted to let them eat “pastillas” (a sweet candy made of milk and rolled on edible paper sheets), except that it was money and not sweets inside the wrapping.
Duterte said fighting corruption was one of his major campaigns.
It was however consistently hounded with scandals.
They included the pastillas controversy in the Bureau of Immigration, corruption allegations among officials in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, the late release of funds for Covid-19 health workers, and issues involving the Department of Public Works and Highways.