MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office chairman Jose Jorge Corpuz has resigned, Malacañang announced on Friday, January 12.

In a message sent to reporters, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Corpuz resigned “due to health reasons.”

Corpuz, a former police director, was recently in news headlines after the PCSO held a P6-million Christmas party at the posh EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.

Roque said, however, that Corpuz was not the chairman of a government agency who President Rodrigo Duterte said he would fire. (READ: Duterte to fire 3 ‘generals,’ government agency chief)

It was a fellow PCSO official and Duterte appointee, board of trustees member Sandra Cam, who first went to the media with details of the multi-million-peso party.

Corpuz defended the spending on the party, saying the 1,580 PCSO employees who attended “deserve” it for their hard work in raising the agency’s earnings. 

PCSO general manager Alexander Balutan also said the P6-million price tag was a reduction from the P14 million which the Department of Budget and Management had approved for the event. – Rappler.com