Duterte: Let’s kidnap, torture COA staff for making it hard for govt
Credit to Author: CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT| Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2019 16:53:20 +0000
IN yet another controversial joke, President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday made light about kidnapping and torturing personnel of the Commission on Audit (COA) as he slammed the agency over its prohibition that hampered government work.
“Ah, p———g COA yan, letse. Yung COA, every time, may mali talaga. Ano ba itong COA na ito? Mag kidnap tayo ng taga-COA, lagay natin dito, torture natin dito. T—–a (Those sons of bitches in COA. That COA, every time, it has something wrong with it. What’s with this COA? Let’s just kidnap COA [officials], put them here, and torture them. Son of a bitch),” Duterte said in a speech during the Barangay Summit on Peace and Order in Pasay City.
Duterte railed against COA for making things difficult for government officials — part of his continuing tirades against bureaucratic processes he sees as obstacles to governance.
“Puro yan pahirapan. Yan ang ayaw ko — ang pahirapan (All it does is make things difficult. That’s what I don’t want — making things difficult),” Duterte said.
“Sino ba gusto makulong nang ano? Pero yung ano, pahirapan, ‘yan ang ayaw ko, yang pahirapan (Who wants to be jailed? But making things difficult, that’s what I don’t like),” he added.
In September, Duterte also slammed the COA and even went as far as to say that its employee should be pushed down the stairs.
Duterte made the remark after Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos claimed that COA did not allow cash advances for the purchase of building materials intended for disaster victims.
“Sino’ng taga-COA dito? Ihulog mo na sa hagdan para ‘di mag-report (Who’s from COA? Push him down the stairs so he won’t be able to file a report anymore),” Duterte had said.
The President then further criticized the circulars released by the state audit agency.
“Some guys in the government went to jail based on a circular, and other guys went scot-free because of the same circular. Ganun ka cockeyed. Depende nalang saan nila eh whether they swing the legal arguments,” Duterte said, adding that the circulars are useless unless they are made into law.
“Kaya nga circular lang ‘yan eh. Make it a law or a regulation, but don’t gkve me that s—t of circular,” he said.
The post Duterte: Let’s kidnap, torture COA staff for making it hard for govt appeared first on The Manila Times Online.