Duterte fires PNOC-EC exec over “idiotic” contract with Russian firm

October 18, 2019

President Rodrigo Duterte said he fired Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation president and chief executive officer Pedro Aquino Jr. due to the "idiotic" contract he prepared.

In a speech Thursday night before some local businessmen in a hotel in Manila, Duterte said  Aquino, who is a lawyer, prepared a contract with the Russians without obtaining first the approval of the PNOC-EC Board of Directors.

"Here is a guy who prepared a contract with the Russians and the Russians thought that it - that was all there is to it...he wanted now the Board of Trustees to ratify what he prepared," he said.

"That's why I said, 'Adre, are you a lawyer?' 'Yes.' I said, 'What is that foolishness that is reversed. Instead of you given the power to draft, to prepare, to whatnot, and then after that have it approved by the Board of Directors. You want the reverse...you want the Board of Directors to ratify your idiotic contract," Duterte added.

Duterte dismissed Aquino weeks after his trip to Russia where he met the executives of Russian oil and gas firm Rosneft Oil Co. and invited them to invest in the Philippines. Celerina Monte/DMS