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[av_heading heading=’Duterte fires urban poor body officials’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte sacked all commissioners of the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP) for alleged misdeeds, including junkets abroad.
The PCUP comprises Chairman Terry Ridon and commissioners Melissa Aradanas, Joan Lagunda, Manuel Serra, and Noe Indonto.
Ridon travelled seven times abroad as head of the commission, Duterte said yesterday in a speech during the 2016 Presidential Award for Child-friendly Cities and Municipalities ceremonies in Malacañang.
The President appointed Ridon, a former Kabataan party-list representative, into the commission in August last year.
“To think the office is an urban poor agency,” Duterte said yesterday. “I don’t understand why you (Ridon) have to be there every powwow in the international scene.”
“It’s a collegial body, and I heard they never had any meeting except one or two,” he added.
Duterte pointed out that government workers must first secure clearance or the necessary travel order before going abroad.
Earlier in the day, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said their work performance “has no place in the Duterte administration.”
“No. 1, it (PCUP) is, according to him (Duterte), a collegial body, and they have not met as a collegial body,” he told a Malacañang press briefing. “No. 2, the commissioners are notorious for junkets abroad.”
Ridon justified their foreign trips, saying they were all sanctioned by the Office of the President.
“All trips were covered by Travel Authorities issued by the Office of the President and recommended by the Office of the Cabinet Secretary involving international conferences relevant to the urban poor: poverty alleviation, public housing and climate change,” he said in a statement.
“Further, these conferences involved a multiagency delegation, including agencies under the Office of the President like PCUP,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Rido thanked the President for the opportunity to serve the administration.
“The public record of the agency can speak for itself,” he said. “We had implemented with full integrity the presidential promise of no demolition without relocation.”
“Despite the heavy burden of undertaking genuine reform,” the PCUP “met its mandate with integrity and competence,” said Ridon.
“We had represented government and given voice to the urban poor in international conferences on public housing, poverty alleviation and climate change, which [were] unprecedented in any administration,” he said.
In a speech at the 84th anniversary celebration of the Labor department on Dec. 8 in Bulacan, the President said he will “fire about one commission mismo, lahat sila (all of them)” on Monday.
Yesterday, Roque confirmed that the PCUP was what Duterte was referring to. “The President said during the 84th anniversary celebration of the Department of Labor and Employment last Dec. 8 that he would fire a commission. The commission he was referring to is the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor,” he said./PN
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