Re-appointed officials not tainted with corruption — Palace

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Friday defended its so-called “recycling” of dismissed government officials, asserting that those who have been re-appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte were not tainted with corruption.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the remark after former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales criticized the recycling of sacked officials.

“The officials who were either removed or resigned from their posts and appointed to other positions were not tainted with corruption during their stint in their offices,” Panelo said in a statement.

“It just happened that their expertise and talents were not suited to their previous positions; hence, their re-appointment to their present offices that will showcase their competence,” he added.

Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, also claimed re-appointing officials is a “presidential prerogative.”

Those who have not been re-appointed, according to Panelo, were stained with corruption. These former government officials, he added, even included “longtime friends, allies, fraternity brods and relations” of Duterte.

“As we have stressed before, there are no sacred cows in this administration,” he insisted.

Morales and Duterte have locked horns in the past, particularly on the investigation of the Office of the Ombudsman in the war on drugs and alleged ill-gotten wealth of the First Family.

Meanwhile, Panelo said they understand Morales’ disappointment on the acquittal of the accused in graft-related cases in the Sandiganbayan.

“We understand the expression of the disappointment of former Ombudsman Morales on the acquittal of the accused in plunder and graft-related cases,” he said.

“But contrary to the perception by some that she is blaming the dismissal of those cases to the current administration, she is not, and she said so herself when asked by this representation,” he added.  /kga