PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is not keen on firing Solicitor General Jose Calida despite the controversial mutli-million-peso government deals secured by the latter's family-owned security agency.
Amid calls for Calida's resignation, the President said he sees no need to remove the Solicitor General from office, saying that the latter is performing "good" as the government's top lawyer.
"Calida's security firm has been there for some time now. Why should I fire him? He's good," Duterte said in a speech delivered during the destruction of smuggled luxury motor vehicles at the Port of Manila.
Calida's family business, Vigilant Investigative and Secutiry Agency Inc. (VISAI), reportedly bagged P150 million worth of contracts with several government agencies.
Calida was also accused of owning 60 percent of VISAI's capital stock, even though he resigned as the firm's chairman and president before he assumed office as solicitor general in 2016.
Calida is facing a graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for supposed conflict of interest over his stock ownership.
Malacañang on Monday, May 28, defended Calida, saying that there was no conflict of interest in Calida's case, noting that mere stock ownership is "not prohibited" by the law.
Duterte said Calida should be spared from any "malice," since the latter already stripped himself of any role in VISAI.
"Why? Don't we have the right to have a business? As long as you do not participate, the fact that you have divested in the sense that you have retired," the President said.
"Don't force it that just because he's retired - 'No, he's still active.' Why do you have to impute or attribute malice there?" he added. (VoxPop Philippines)
