PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday, July 5, confirmed that he had fired Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas.
His latest pronouncement was contrary to the recent claim of his mouthpiece, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo that the Chief Executive did not ask Aranas to resign.
“Sinabi ko lang, ‘pag nanalo ako, I will deal with corruption,” Duterte said at the inauguration of Chen Yi Agventures Rice Processing Complex in Alangalang, Leyte.
“I’m dealing with it until now. I just fired the president of GSIS,” he added.
On Thursday, July 4, Panelo said Aranas was not asked by Duterte to resign from post, as the former GSIS chief quit for “personal reasons.”
Panelo added that the President just accepted Aranas’s resignation “without any reason or any comment.”
Aranas, in his resignation letter dated July 2 and addressed to Duterte, failed to cite his reason for his decision to leave his post at GSIS, but stressed that he “never compromised his integrity” during his stint at state-run pension fund.
His resignation came after Commission on Audit, in its 2018 annual audit of the government-owned corporation, demands the refund of the P260.5 million in incentives to GSIS employees that are deemed as “illegal expenditures.”
Prior to his resignation, Aranas also sought to sell a contested 672,645-square-meter property at the Manila North Harbor, which is currently occupied by the International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI) let by billionaire Enrique Razon.
Duterte, after the 39th Cabinet meeting held Monday, July 1, reportedly confronted Aranas for being untruthful that the ICTSI was not paying rent, according to reports. (SunStar Philippines)