Pres. Duterte demands resignation of all ERC officials

MANILA -- President Rodrigo R. Duterte has demanded the resignation of all officials of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) amid allegations of corruption in the agency following the death of ERC Director Francisco Villa Jr. I am demanding that they all resign they must all resign, the President said during a press conference in Lima, Peru where he had just attended the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ meeting.Villa, chairman of the ERC’s Bids and Awards Committee, committed suicide last Nov. 9 after allegedly being pressured to approve procurement contracts and hiring consultants without proper bidding and procedure.The allegations were contained in three suicide notes Villa supposedly wrote sometime late August, or months before he took his own life.President Duterte said that reports reaching him showed that anomalies still exist in the ERC despite his repeated warnings against corruption. I have read the internal and the intelligence reports, binastos nila, like in the past, he said.He also warned that his source has documents and that it is just a matter of having government lawyers assessing such documents. I have options, file a case against them all or demand that no money would be appropriated by Congress. If they want to be spared the humiliation of sitting there without money, they resign and I will reorganize to rename the agency, the President said. I demand from Congress to disband ERC and/or file a simultaneous case against them when I get back. Mabuti na malaman na nila bago ako mag-landing (better for them to know now before I arrive), he said. (PNA)