DAGUPAN CITY—Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday promised a clean government if wins the presidency—even as he slammed administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II over Typhoon “Yolanda” that flattened Eastern Visayas and killed over 6,000 people in November 2013.
“I guarantee you, it will be a clean government. There will be no corruption,” he promised before students of the Lyceum Northwestern University here.
Duterte said he was also unfazed by the Nationalist People’s Coalition’s of Senator Grace Poe and her running mate Senator Francis Escudero.
“I don’t think it [the endorsement] will affect the votes for me,” he told reporters.
“For as long as you stand for what you believe in, people will support you.”
He made his statement even as Malacañang on Thursday said all of the foreign aid for Yolanda’s victims had been accounted for.
“All the foreign aid received by the country for the benefit of the communities affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda are fully accounted for and have undergone the requisite audit by the Commission on Audit,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement.
“According to the records of the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub, the Philippines received a total of $386.2 million in foreign aid, 86 percent of which or $330.8 million were received by Non-Government Organizations, Multilateral Agencies and others.”
Duterte mentioned the billions of pesos that the country received for Yolanda’s victims.
“Now, I will ask Roxas, where did the Yolanda funds go?” Duterte asked.
He said Roxas, then the Interior secretary, must have an explanation for the missing funds.
Earlier, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, a senatorial bet, questioned the Aquino administration for the release of P90 billion in Yolanda rehabilitation funds as of June 30, 2013, under the stewardship of Roxas.
He also appealed to the government to set aside politicking and focus on rebuilding the Yolanda-stricken provinces.