President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the Department of Justice to expand the scope of its Task Force initially investigating corruption in Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the entire government.
“I hope that all government workers, officials are listening. This is a memorandum from me to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. The subject is investigating corruption allegations in the entire government,” Duterte said in a speech aired on Tuesday morning.
Duterte said despite his relentless efforts to eradicate corruption, some officials continue to practice corruption activities.
“I will concentrate the last remaining years of my term fighting corruption kasi hanggang ngayon, hindi humihina, lumalakas pa lalo. Para na tuloy naging inutil ang mga opisyal ng bayan, na wala talagang magawa with the onslaught of corruption,” he said.
Duterte assured that he will never stop until he makes a dent in fighting corruption in the government.
“Hindi po ako maniwala na wala akong magagawa. May magagawa ako,” he said.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that investigating the entire government is a daunting task.
“Apart from my usual responsibilities as SOJ, this new assignment is the toughest I have ever received from the president. I will need all the support and cooperation of the entire govt machinery to achieve this singular objective of substantially reducing corruption in government,” Guevarra said.
“Considering the breadth of this anti-corruption campaign, I will immediately focus on the organizational set-up and mechanism that will carry out the president’s directive till the end of his term, as well as the order of priorities,” he added.
