Duterte wants Pasig River rehab body abolished

October 29, 2019

President Rodrigo Duterte said he wants the abolition of the Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission in order not to waste anymore government's money.

In a speech on Monday in Malacanang, Duterte asked Congress to abolish the Commission.

The President fired last September PRRC Executive Director Jose Antonio Goitia allegedly due to corruption.

"That's why I said if Congress is listening, congressmen, abolish it. There is nothing to clean in the Pasig River. It is already clean," Duterte said.

"That is the art - state-of-the art of Pasig. Unless we require every building not only along the river, but everybody who has a waste to dump in a sewage or sewerage, nothing will happen," he said.

The President said the government is just wasting time and money for those people in the Commission.

"We are wasting time. You are paying people for nothing. They cannot do anything," he added.

The PRRC was created in January 1999 by virtue of Executive Order No. 54, as amended by EO 65.

With this, there could be no need for Congress to pass a law to abolish the Commission, said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a press briefing on Tuesday.

He said the President himself could issue an EO abolishing the PRRC. 

The Commission was created to ensure that the Pasig River is rehabilitated to its historically pristine condition conducive for the propagation of fishes and other aquatic resources, transport, creation and tourism. Celerina Monte/DMS