Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has fired a third official over the granting of a 75-year casino license to the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport (APECO).
Government Corporate Counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado was fired on Monday for providing the legal opinion which paved the way for APECO to be granted permission to operate outside the Aurora Economic Zone provided it was within areas controlled by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.
Jurado had previously been accused by fellow officials in the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC) of being behind the decision to award APECO a license.
“May I call the government corporate counsel now. Are you here? If you are here, you show yourself to me. You are fired. I don’t need you,” Duterte is quoted as saying by local media.
“When you are granted a franchise to conduct gambling in a certain facility, it does not include farming out that franchise to other cities and provinces … you are just like [PAGCOR] operating an independent entity with the same powers to grant everything. You fool.”
Duterte last week said he had fired two unnamed ranking APECO officials after learning they had granted a 75-year gaming license to a free port locator, likening it to those issued by the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority.
He said at the time that, “It is rightful to issue permits within your territory, but when you begin to issue gambling permits outside of your territory … I don’t like [gambling] so as much as possible we limit it.”