This Cabinet Sec resigned after 24 days

 Move out Sueno, Laviña!

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

If disgraced former Secretary Mike Sueno of the Department of Interior & Local Government and ex Administrator Peter Tiu Laviña of the National Irrigation Administration unceremoniously left office for nine months and eight months’ stints respectively from President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration this powerful, Yes Virginia very powerful, government executive left office for just a tenure of 24 days after his president asked him to tender his resignation.

If Sueno was suspected to abet the conclusion of the controversial purchased of an overpriced fire trucks in Austria where he and his family travelled there to make sure the delivery ensue despite a pending case on them in the Supreme Court and his grandson, a police official in Camp Crame, was allegedly reported to be his bagman from tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos in illegal gambling monies, Lavina, according to my source at the NIA, allegedly fleece a percentage of financial share from private contractors who transacted  tens if not hundreds of millions of pesos of projects in the Agency.

So who is this head of an Agency who was sacked, er, asked to resign because his stay in office could embarrass his president? What was his fault?

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To quench your curiosity, here’s a brief background of the man I took from Wikipidia:

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science major in management in 1981 and was a Distinguished Military Graduate of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps , yes My dear Procopio that old ROTC and not PMA. He also earned a Master of Business Administration in Telecommunications , a Master of Military Art and Science from the  Command and General Staff College , and a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College.

In September 2011, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. On April 17, 2012, the president appointed him to be the 18th Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

On April 30, 2014, he announced his retirement. He was reportedly yanked out of the DIA after clashing with superiors over his allegedly chaotic management style and vision for the agency. In a private e-mail that was leaked online, the Defense Secretary said that he had heard in the DIA that he got fired because he was "abusive with staff, didn't listen, worked against policy, bad management, others".

On November 18, 2016, he accepted the offer of the newly elected president to head the position of National Security Advisor. Even prior to his appointment as national security advisor, he had already drawn criticism for what sources, from the media, have described as his close relations with Russia, his promotion and popularization of conspiracy theories, and fake news stories during the 2016 presidential election.

On February 1, 2017, ranking members of the six committees of House of Representatives sent a letter to the Secretary of Defense, requesting a Department of Defense investigation into his connection to Russian Today (RT) – a daily in Russia. The legislators expressed concern that he had violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the Constitution by accepting money from RT. A 2017 report by the Intelligence Community characterized RT as "The Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.

On December 29, 2016, he spoke with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The phone conversation was reportedly viewed by outgoing government who had been briefed on its content by the national investigation agency with suspicion as possibly hatching a secret deal between the incoming president and Russia, which could have violated the dormant (Logan Act) the law that bars unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign powers in disputes with his country. On January 13, 2017, the next day after the story was broken by a media man.

On January 22, 2017, a national daily reported that he was under investigation by government’s counterintelligence agents for his communications with Russian officials. On February 8, 2017, he flatly denied having spoken to the Russian ambassador in December 2016 about the sanctions placed on Russia by his government; however, the next day, government intelligence officials shared an account indicating that such discussions did in fact take place. Following this revelation, his spokesman released a statement that he "indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn't be certain that the topic never came up".

In addition to the government's investigation, A national daily reported that, according to two defense officials, the Army is separately investigating whether he"received money from the Russian government during a trip he took to Moscow in 2015". According to the officials, there was no record that he has "filed the required paperwork for the trip". If he received money without the consent of Congress, he might have violated the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.

On February 13, 2017, he resigned as National Security Advisor, following reports on his communications with the Russian ambassador and his misleading of the Vice President about it

Probably after how he was “shabbily” treated by his president, On March 30, a national daily reported that he had offered to testify to the national investigation agency or the Senate and House Intelligence committees in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

In case his expose’ would pinpoint to his president to be part of the conspiracy with the Russian to influence the last presidential election, the president could be sued with impeachment by his enemies in Congress.
Finally to quench your curiosity, the name of the man (trumpets’ sounds) was retired Army General Michael Flynn and the president who was seen protecting him and possibly flirting with Russia, who had sex videos of the prexy as claimed by the CIA, BBC, others, just like Senator Leila de Lima, was Donald Trump of the United States of America.

NOTE: LOOK AT HIS PHOTO BELOW

 (You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)