Duterte defends posting ex-military men in admin: ‘They deliver’

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during the distribution of the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) in Region 10 in a ceremony at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (USTP) Gymnasium in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. (Photo from an RTVM video)

DAVAO CITY — “Ayaw ko himua nga inutil [Don’t make me very helpless],” President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday as he justified the military takeover of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), a government agency he described as having been long pervaded with corruption.

“I will not sit as president kung himuon ko ninyong inutil [if you make me very helpless]. They’re saying, [the move to takeover the Bureau of Customs] is militarization of the government. Correct,” the President said. “Some are saying not all of us are corrupt. That’s right. But how come the shabu [crystal meth shipment] slipped through?”

The President made the statement in his speech during the distribution of the Certificates of Land Ownership Award (Cloa) in Cagayan de Oro Wednesday night.

Duterte, who continued to defend former Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña and Lapena’s predecessor, Nicanor Faeldon, said he had appointed former military officers to his Cabinet because they were the one who delivered.

“Most of my Cabinet secretaries are already military men, why? I do not have anything against the bureaucracy, but the bureaucracy takes a long time to deliver. It will take you forever [to implement projects] because they’re fond of debating,” he said, speaking in a mix of Cebuano and English.

“In the midt of a disaster — fire, flooding — they’re not there because they’re drinking,” he added.

He said he had doubled the pay of the police and military.

“But what’s the work of the military?” he asked. “Fight the enemy of the state and die.”

The President said the military also served as “utility boy,” who, when ordered to dig the road, would really do it.

“That’s why, [most of my Cabinet members] are former military generals,” he said. “In Boracay, if not for military men [Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo] Año and [Environment Secretary Roy] Cimatu, would Boracay be cleaned up?

In Marawi, if not for [Housing Secretary Eduardo] del Rosario, a military man from Davao, would [the rehabilitation] be that fast? Would the money still be there?”

He said when you order the military to finish it in 60 days, they really would finish it. /atm