Corruption holding back PH progress, Duterte tells Pinoys in Malaysia

SNAPSHOTS President Duterte is greeted by snapshots and cheers from the crowd as he arrives
at the Grand Ballroom of theMandarin Oriental Hotel for hismeetingwith the Filipino
community in Kuala Lumpur. —MALACAÑANGPHOTO

KUALA LUMPUR—Comparing the pace of its progress to an airplane, President Duterte on Wednesday said the Philippines had long been on the runway but had not been able to take off.

“Why? Well, No. 1 is corruption,” Mr. Duterte told more than 1,000 Filipinos who welcomed him at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Malaysian capital.

He arrived here on an official visit after traveling to Bangkok, where he paid his respects to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The President was given full military honors when he arrived at Perdana Square in Putra Jaya, the Malaysian center of government, around 5 p.m. on Thursday.

Security issues

Mr. Duterte, who motored for nearly an hour from Kuala Lumpur with several Cabinet members and Philippine National Police Director General Ronald de la Rosa, shook hands with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who led him to the Prime Minister’s Office after the welcome ceremony.

The two officials then talked behind closed doors in what was described as a “Four Eyes Meeting” inside Najib’s office.

Malacañang earlier said the two leaders would be talking about security in the Malacca Straits and abductions by the Abu Sayyaf bandit group in Malaysia-Philippine waters.

Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay later told reporters at the Marriott Hotel that it was Najib who mentioned Sabah in passing, by saying that it was “not a good idea” to talk about the

issue.

“There was really no discussion of Sabah. The Prime Minister has immediately, in fact, said that he agrees with what has been articulated in the past that talking about Sabah at this time is not a good idea because we would not be able to come up with solutions as of yet,” Yasay said.

He said Najib also stated that it would take some time before the issue is resolved.

Malaysia maintains that the claim of the sultanate of Sulu over Sabah, which Duterte declared support for during the election campaign, has no basis as the issue had been settled when the people of Sabah voted to join the Malaya Federation in the 1960s.

Najib and Mr. Duterte also talked about revitalizing economic cooperation, such as pushing forward the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area cooperation efforts, according to Yasay.

Najib played host to Mr. Duterte and other officials at a state dinner in Putra Jaya.

At the meeting with the Filipino community, the President said corruption had long been a problem and it was time to put a stop to it, which, he added, was among the reasons that made him run for the presidency in the May elections.

Mr. Duterte said he was bent on fulfilling that promise even if it meant hurting oligarchs who wanted to bag government contracts by using their influence on officials.

“Corruption must stop and it will stop during my time,” he stressed.

The President also advised Filipinos working abroad to be “assertive” when dealing with government personnel. For example, he urged them not to fall prey to extortion at airports when they return home.

He said he would not hesitate to dismiss officials for corruption even if the accusations would reach him only in whispers.

Mr. Duterte said he was bound to stop corruption as this was what he promised the people.

He said that there should be zero corruption in his six years in power, and that he reminded “everybody in the government” about that desire of his.

“I’ve warned all of them that if they do something wrong, for example…the assistant commissioner of customs.  If it reaches me … not even a whisper like Caesar’s wife. If I hear just a little of it, I would not gamble whether or not it’s true. He should go,” the President said.

He said he wanted to be remembered “as one who really tried to do something good for our country.”