Immediately after the termination of the plenary consideration of the budget for the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on September 12, 2017, then DICT Secretary Rodolfo Salalima, a provincemate from Albay, approached me in the session hall and told me he was resigning because he “could not anymore bear the pressure” on him.

However, he asked me not tell anyone about it presumably not to preempt his actual resignation.

On September 21, 2017, Malacañang announced Salalima’s resignation as DICT Secretary.

It subsequently turned out that Salalima resigned because of corrupt pressures and interferences in his work.

I urge Salalima to disclose more thoroughly how, when and who exerted corrupt pressures and interferences on him.

The former DICT Secretary must also reveal whether the bidding of the national broadband project was a subject of the fraudulent interference.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN