MALACAÑANG on Tuesday insisted that they never said the allegations against former Dangerous Drugs Board chief Dionisio Santiago were true, but reminded government officials and employees that they have to be “purer than Caesar’s wife” while serving the bureaucracy.
“I was very clear, if there are allegations in a complaint, we did not say they are the truth,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace news briefing.
“And that is why I understand General Santiago was somehow hurt. But I emphasize, we have never alleged that they are gospel truth, they are allegations, which I’m sure, he can easily dispute,” he added.
Roque made these pronouncements after Santiago vehemently denied the allegations against him, adding that his supposed accuser is willing to come out to deny the letter complaint allegedly sent to Malacañang last month.
On Monday, the Palace revealed that the former official, who was fired for contradicting President Rodrigo Duterte, also got fired for supposedly going on “extravagant” junkets abroad, bringing his “girl Friday” and receiving gifts from an alleged narco-politician.
Roque insisted that the President will fire anyone accused “even a whiff of corruption.”
“So even if this letter were anonymous, the President would still consider it and would still take steps to verify the truth of allegations.”
He also reminded presidential appointees that they all serve on the pleasure of the President.
“We have to be more pure—purer than Caesar’s wife in government service,” he added. John Paolo Bencito and Rio N. Araja
Santiago on Tuesday denied allegations of corruption hurled against him by a group of agency employees.
In a television interview, Santiago said the alleged letter sender, one Priscilla Herrera from the DDB Employees’ Union, had denied sending any letter to the Office of the President.
He said he was able to reach Herrera over the phone to verify the authenticity of the letter sent to President Duterte, but she denied sending a letter to Malacañang.
Herrera told him that her surname on the letter dated Oct. 27 was even misspelled, and that she would never write her full name in her signatures.
“She is willing [to come forward to clear her name since she is not really the one who sent the letter,” he said.
The letter sender accused of Santiago of bringing his family and even his “girl Friday” to extravagant “junkets” abroad, and that he accepted a mansion from the slain mayor Reynaldo Parojinog, a suspected drug lord.
“This is an extravagant use of government resources and abuse of authority,” the letter read.
The union president, however, denied they wrote the Palace a letter.
In another TV interview, union president Joann Desiderio said Herrera was not a union member in the past 10 years.
“We are explicitly denying the letter came from us so we are also surprised,” she said, adding she had talked to Herrera, who claimed she never wrote any letter against the former DDB chairperson.
She said the letterhead of the communications contained a logo entirely different from their official logo.
“This was not the first time that the union was used in complaints. We have to put a stop into this. The union must not be used to malign, to issue statements about other people, especially our superiors,” she added.
Santiago was removed from the DDB over accusations of graft and abuse of authority.