DAVAO CITY (November 26) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday designated National Housing Authority (NHA) General Manager Marcelino P. Escalada Jr. the new Secretary General of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).
Escalada, still heads the NHA and will serve as HUDCC secretary general at the same time.
Duterte gave Escalada the new task after he fired HUDCC secretary general Falconi Millar over corruption allegations.
Being the HUDCC secretary-general, Escalada will also head the secretariat of Task Force Bangon Marawi, which is in charge of Marawi City rehabilitation.
On Thursday, Duterte revealed “Just before I left my office, I signed a dismissal order of the secretary-general of housing. A certain Millar. I read his resume earlier and I saw the termination, I knew what a deep s*** the guy has created for…Valedictorian in law class and everything. But I don’t know,” he added.
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Duterte said he has seen a lot of people who used their power to commit corruption.
“Along the way, corruption creeps in… You know when you are there secretary-general, you have the power, you have the authority. You can do corruption and it can corrupt you, give you a little or it corrupts you absolutely… Sometimes it is really you want your money to go to your pocket almost every day,” the President said.
When Duterte was City Mayor here, he designated Escadala to head four different departments at City Hall, he served as Human Resource Chief; Head of the City Cooperative Office; City Panning and Development Office and; the City Housing Office.
Informed NewsLine source said, Duterte had a lengthy conversation with Escalada at the Palace Thursday night.-Editha Z. Caduaya/NewsLine