Duterte accepts DICT usec’s resignation

PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte has accepted the resignation of an undersecretary of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), three months after the official questioned hundreds of millions of pesos in intelligence funds at the agency.

“The President has finally accepted my resignation that I filed last February,” former DICT Undersecretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said in a social media post on Friday.

Mr. Rio said he did not want to comment further to avoid “disruptive discussions” while the government fights a coronavirus pandemic. He thanked Mr. Duterte for giving him the chance to serve under his government.

Mr. Rio quit after flagging “confidential funds,” which he wasn’t initially aware of as undersecretary for operations.

He later patched up with DICT Secretary and former Senator Gregorio B. Honasan II who he said had secured P300 million in cash advances, charged against the ₱400 million earmarked for the agency’s confidential expenses in 2019.

The budget was supposedly allotted to protect the country’s national and cybersecurity. — Charmaine A. Tadalan