He’s not corrupt, Ismael Sueno said after he was unceremoniously fired by President Duterte in front of the entire Cabinet on Monday night. The next day, the President was still fuming as he disclosed that Sueno was fired over accusations of corruption that the fallen secretary of the interior and local government failed to disprove.
The accusations will have to be subjected to legal scrutiny. Corruption is a serious offense; amounts involving at least P50 million warrant an indictment for the non-bailable offense of plunder. Lower-ranking public officials have been dismissed from government service and sentenced to years in prison for amounts involving less than P500,000.
If the secretary of the interior is accused of corruption by his department’s undersecretaries, the charge must not be dropped with the sacking of Sueno. The accused has a right to be heard and to defend himself. Several issues were raised against him, but the President focused on only one in a speech yesterday: the procurement of fire trucks from Austria for the Bureau of Fire Protection. The government-to-government deal, approved during the Aquino administration, was controversial from the start. Austria has defended the contract and vouches for the quality of the fire trucks.
President Duterte said cheaper fire trucks made locally are available and there is no need to import. But he has also said he does not want procurements to be based on the lowest bid, because prices could be rigged by collusion and quality could suffer. What he wants, he maintains, is value for money. Sueno reportedly claimed he was not familiar with the details of the contract.
With his disgraceful exit from his post, Sueno should be the first to want a thorough probe of the charges against him. He has already been condemned in the court of public opinion, and a formal probe is the only way for him to clear his name.
Sueno headed the President’s political party the PDP-Laban, and he was among those who helped persuade then Davao mayor Rodrigo Duterte to seek the nation’s highest post. The President can be commended for not hesitating to let go of those close to him who are implicated in graft cases. Yesterday he reiterated his warning that he would get rid of officials who are tainted with “even a whiff of corruption.”
Firing officials, however, is not enough. The whole truth must be known, the innocent must be cleared, and appropriate penalties imposed in case guilt is established.