Duterte: Ex-military officers appointed because they get job done

On Friday, Aug. 4 , 2017, a rain-drenched President Rodrigo Duterte spoke to troops in Barangay Kilala – a village close to Lilod – during his second visit in Marawi.

President Rodrigo Duterte has not been putting former members of the military in government posts because he’s afraid of them. He’s putting them there because he’s impressed with them.

That’s what the President himself told troops in Marawi during his visit to the besieged city on Friday.

Duterte once more defended his decision to appoint ex-military officers to his administration, as he reiterated that Gen. Eduardo Año, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), would head the Department of the Interior and Local Government upon his retirement in October.

According to him, he and former Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III faced the same criticism about the appointment of military officials.

“They ask: Why? Were we afraid of the military? We’re not afraid of the military. We are impressed with the military and the police because you can order them to work,” he told the Marawi troopers.

Unlike civilians, men in uniform get the job done fast, he said.

“I was Davao mayor a long time,” he said. “It’s difficult with the civilians, those with eligibility. When you give them instructions, they take a long time to do it.”

“When you tell them to finish it in one hour, these people – susmaryosep. After lunch break, they go to the mall, stroll around,” he added.

Duterte also reiterated that he would relinquish his post if the military would want him out. So there would be no need to launch a coup d’etat against him.

“Forget the coup d’etat,” he said. “I said just tell me, and I’d step down.”

The President had once joked about having a military junta after he first announced Año’s impending appointment to the DILG, noting the number of retired soldiers in his Cabinet.

The retired military officers men in Duterte’s Cabinet include Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, and National Irrigation Administration chief Ricardo Visaya.

An earlier Inquirer count listed 59 retired military generals, police directors, admirals, and Colonels in the cabinet and other government agencies, including government-owned corporations. /atm