The Palace last week announced that President Rodrigo Duterte had fired the general manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Alexander Balutan, over “serious allegations of corruption.”
As he was departing, however, Balutan denied any wrongdoing and hinted that powerful people had wanted him out.
In a statement posted on social media, Balutan said that when he became general manager in 2016, he told PCSO employees that if somebody from the Office of the President or Congress asked or ordered him to do something he could not stomach, he would resign.
"Career for me is just temporary but character is lifetime… even beyond my grave," he said, adding that he never asked for the job, and that the President even asked him to retire from military service ahead of his retirement so he could serve in the administration.
His deputy spokesman said Balutan resigned for “personal reasons.”
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo, however, made it clear that Balutan was fired.
“We hope that this will serve as a stern warning to all government officials and employees that there are no sacred cows in the current administration, especially when it comes to serving the Filipino people with integrity and loyalty,” he said in a statement.
Who are we to believe?
Last year, Balutan came under fire for throwing a P6.3-million Christmas party at the five-star EDSA Shangri-La hotel for the PCSO’s 1,580 employees and guests in 2017. The Commission on Audit, in its 2017 report, flagged this as an “extravegant expenditure.”
There have also been allegations of corruption in the operation of the PCSO’s small-town lottery that led to a Senate investigation in January 2018.
In the aftermath of those investigations, at least two senators said Balutan should go, and one urged the administration to file criminal charges against him. This recommendation makes eminent sense. If the government can prove its case against the sacked official, then firing him should only be the first step—he must be made accountable in a court of law.
At the heart of this issue—and the President’s anti-corruption campaign as a whole—is the question of honesty, a trait that President Duterte clearly holds dear. Was the government official in question being honest in the way he ran his agency? This is a crucial question, the answer of which determines whether or not he is fit for public office, regardless of what anybody else might say.
The President is clearly an honest man. That should be the measure, too, for those who work with him and for him.