President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has announced the dismissal of National Electrification Administration (NEA) Administrator Edgardo Masongsong for alleged corruption.

“We have been talking about corruption. Alam mo, may bago akong — the name is Edgardo Masongsong. He is the administrator of the National Electrification Administration. I dismissed him from public service,” the President said in his televised Talk to the People on COVID-19 address aired Saturday morning.

The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) conducted the investigation and made the recommendation for Masongsong’s dismissal, the President said.

Fighting corruption and eliminating illicit drug trade and criminality were the President’s major campaign pledges when he ran for the presidency in 2016.

However, President Duterte admitted during his address that eliminating corruption is hard because it is endemic, but his government is trying its best to reduce it.

“We are not bragging about it but we are trying our best to cope up with the situation regarding graft and corruption in our government,” he said.

“I’m sorry, but I said people are really skeptic and cynic about our desire to improve our government service.”

The President, who believes in outright removal of erring personnel and officials, vowed to address corruption in the bureaucracy in the remaining months of his presidency. The termination of Masongsong is part of that thrust.

Masongsong was appointed administrator of NEA in November 2016. PND