Honeylet Avanceña: It pains Duterte to fire friends

TACLOBAN CITY — In a rare public statement about President Rodrigo Duterte’s governance, his partner Honeylet Avanceña said it pained the chief executive to fire government officials whom he considered to be friends but had to do it because it was the right thing to do.

Avanceña also said it was particularly painful for the President to sack officials who had convinced him to run for highest government post in 2016.

“It was heavy on his part that he appointed them and then had to let them go because they were his friends,” she said in a speech at the inauguration of the main building of the new Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center on Tuesday.

Avanceña said the President would not hesitate to fire corrupt officials and won’t spare even close friends.