Duterte talked about sacking Sueno 2 weeks ago — Sotto

More than two weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III knew already that Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno would be sacked from his post.

Sotto said President Rodrigo Duterte himself mentioned about it during their trip to Myanmar and Thailand last month. The senator was part of the Philippine delegation who joined the President’s official visits to the two countries last March 19.

The President fired the Sueno only last Monday, April 3.

READ: Sueno accepts Duterte decision, but denies corruption allegation | Sueno has been sacked — Aguirre

“I knew that the DILG Secretary was going because I’ve heard it from the President himself during our trip. But I didn’t tell anyone,” Sotto told a forum in the Senate on Thursday.

“There are information that has reached him that we don’t know. The bottom line lang is he has lost trust to these employees or to these appointees. As long as he has lost trust already, huwag na nating pag usapan kung ano pa yung mga alam nyang information tungkol sa mga tao na yun, kung may masama o wala.”

Sotto said the President is the appointing power, thus, he has a prerogative to remove his own appointees anytime he wants.

“Even if he suddenly dislikes your face today, he can fire you. That’s the prerogative of the President,” he said.

The senator refused to say, however, if the corruption allegations against Sueno could be one of the reasons why the President fired him.

He said he was not authorized to disclose what they discussed during the trip as they were only two or three when the President talked about Sueno.

“Parang executive session ang pinag uusapan natin e. Nakakahiya on my part, nahihiya akong mag kwento na hindi naman ako authorized mag kwento. Parang executive session yun dahil ano e, dalawa o tatlo lang kami …”

But Sotto said Duterte mentioned that he would not have second thoughts firing his men once he heard even a whiff of corruption against them.

And the fact that it took more than two weeks for the President to dismiss Sueno was proof that he had validated whatever allegations against him, the senator said.

“Tingin nko vinalidate pa nya… Two weeks ago, I overheard him already,” Sotto added. CBB

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