PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has fired three left-leaning undersecretaries at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the agency said on Monday.
In a statement, the DSWD said Undersecretary for Protective Programs Mae Fe Templa and Undersecretary for Promotive Programs Maria Lourdes Turalde-Jarabe stepped down from their posts on November 14 following “orders from Malacañang.”
Hope Hervilla, undersecretary for the department’s disaster response management group, resigned on the same day, the DSWD said.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, in a message to reporters, said Rolando Bautista, the former Philippine Army chief appointed as the new head of DSWD, requested the personnel changes.
“We expect the new secretary to bring his own team to provide better services to the public,” he said.
Medialdea denied that the exit of the three DSWD officials had something to do with their political inclinations.
It was for the “formation of a good team,” he said.
Assistant Secretary Glenda Relova of the Office of the Secretary assured the public that the delivery of DSWD services would continue.
Bautista replaced Judy Taguiwalo, a left-leaning former University of the Philippines professor, whose nomination was rejected by the Commission on Appointments last year.
Last week, Duterte said he would sack a government official upon his return from the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summits in Singapore and Papua New Guinea, respectively.
Just last month, Duterte sacked Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod, a former Anakpawis party-list representative and a political detainee during the Marcos regime.
National Anti-Poverty Commission Chairman Liza Maza, a former Gabriela party-list representative, resigned in August this year after the President terminated peace talks between the government and the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Former Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon was kicked out by Duterte from the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor in December last year for allegedly excessive travels.
Duterte has fired a number of government officials since June 2016 because of excessive foreign trips, as well as corruption.
The list includes former Department of Interior and Local Government chief Ismael Sueno; National Irrigation Administration chief Peter Lavina; Social Security System commissioner Jose Gabriel “Pompee” Lavina; Maritime Industry Authority Administrator Marcial Quirico Amaro 3rd and Commission on Higher Education chief Patricia Licuanan.
Labor Undersecretary Dominador Say and Tourism chief Wanda Tulfo-Teo also resigned amid corruption allegations.
In August, Malacañang announced Duterte’s firing of Brig. Gene. Edwin Torrelavega, the chief of V. Luna Hospital and Col. Antonio Punzalan, the head of the logistics office of the military hospital, for allegedly undertaking anomalous purchases of equipment and engaging in fraudulent transactions worth P1,491,570.
Duterte dismissed at the same time the comptroller of the Philippine Military Academy, Hector Marana, for alleged malversation of P15 million worth of allowances of cadets.
https://www.manilatimes.net/duterte-sacks-3-dswd-execs/470428/
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