President wants agencies to ignore audit body
BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR and WENDELL VIGILIA
PRESIDENT Duterte has told members of the executive branch, especially those involved in government efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic, to ignore the Commission on Audit (COA) and just do their jobs.
The President made the statement late Monday during his weekly “Talk to the People” address during which he also asked COA to stop flagging government offices and instead give the agencies more “elbow room,” especially in making emergency purchases to address the pandemic.
“Huwag mong sundin iyang COA. p***** i** iyang COA-COA na iyan. Wala namang mangyari diyan (Don’t follow that COA. That son of a b**** COA. Nothing will come out of that),” he said.
Duterte’s statement was met with criticisms yesterday while Health Secretary Francisco Duque III turned emotional before lawmakers who are looking into the COA’s report flagging the DOH for its alleged mishandling of a P67-billion budget for the COVID-19 pandemic response last year.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the President cannot dictate on COA as to what it should do with its report.
“The Commission on Audit is a constitutional body which is independent of the executive or legislative branches of government, and certainly not under the Office of the President of the republic. It has a mandate to perform and no one can dictate on them,” Lacson said.
“COA findings and recommendations are public documents. Transparency dictates that the public must be informed of how public monies are spent. That said, the President is out of line in publicly castigating the COA which is just performing its mandate and responsibility to the people and the Constitution,” he added.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the President should have not hit COA and instead castigated the DOH for mismanaging the P67-billion fund.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman reminded the President he has no power or authority to gag COA.
“Duterte conveniently forgot that COA is an independent constitutional commission which is not accountable to the president,” said the leader of the opposition at the House.
Lagman said the people’s right to information “cannot be negated and quashed by invoking that officials should be shielded from ‘corruption by perception.’”
“COA’s audit reports are thoroughly reviewed and documented,” he said. “When major government departments and agencies are found to have unspent and/or misspent their respective budgets, then it is COA’s obligation to disclose the sanctionable negligence to utilize public funds and the culpable misuse of the people’s money.”
Duque, at the hearing of the House committee on public accounts, said he and his fellow health officials have been losing sleep over the COA report, lamenting that the issues raised by the constitutional body has left them “bloodied and bludgeoned.”
“Mula no’ng Wednesday na lumabas po ito, hindi na po ako nakakatulog, ang mga kasama kong mga opisyal sa DOH, hindi na rin halos nakakatulog. Bakit ‘ka ninyo? Sa kahihiyan, we were bloodied and bludgeoned with this issue, and kung ganito nang ganito tayo, papaano tayo uunlad? (I haven’t slept since Wednesday when this came out, the same with my fellow DOH officials. Why? Because of shame. We were bloodied and bludgeoned with this issue and if this goes on, how can we become better?),” he told the hearing of the House committee on public accounts.
The House of Representatives is looking into the COA findings because the funds involved were among those allocated under the Bayanihan laws that Congress passed last year.
“Winarak na ninyo kami eh, winarak na ninyo ang dangal ng DOH. Winarak ninyo ang lahat ng mga kasama ko dito, hindi kami makaharap sa mga tao dahil lahat ang dami-daming sinasabi, ang dami-daming paratang. (You destroyed us, you destroyed our the dignity of the DOH. You destroyed all my colleagues here, we can;t face the people because of the many things being said, there are so many accusations),” Duque said in the presence of COA officials led by Michael Aguinaldo who also attended the online hearing.
Duque, who is again being pressured by critics to resign for the department’s alleged incompetence and ineptness, said he was deeply hurt by the attacks caused by the COA report because the DOH is doing everything to effectively respond to the pandemic.
The most controversial secretary in the Duterte cabinet said the department should have been allowed by the COA to reply to the audit report first to give it a chance to shed light on its findings, something that the COA is already doing.
COA last week said DOH transactions are undergoing further scrutiny because of doubts on their regularity and propriety but was quick to issue a statement saying that it has yet to issue findings that funds were missing.
“Sabi ko nga sa inyo, nagkasakit na ang mga tao ko, nag-isolate, nag-quarantine, may namatay na, pero por Diyos por Santo, maawa naman kayo. Kayo nga ang pumunta dito at kayo ang gumawa? (I told you, people are getting sick, isolating, going on quarantine, and dying so for the love of God, be merciful. What if you take our place and do this job)?” Duque said.
ALL AGENCIES
Duterte, at the Monday address, said his order is not limited to the Department of Health but applies to all as he recently saw COA reports on alleged irregularities in the spending of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the office of Peace Adviser Carlito Galvez, concurrent chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19 and vaccine czar.
Duterte was incensed by COA’s flagging of alleged irregularities in the spending activities of some government agencies, and making public its audit reports before the alleged erring agency has answered or explained the issue, and before a final report is done.
He said the release of initial findings makes it appear there is confirmed corruption in the agency concerned, which taints its overall image.
He said publicized incomplete reports are not fair to the people who are working hard to serve the public as these become “gospel truth,” even after explanations are given by the concerned offices.
“You make a report. Do not flag and do not publish it because it will condemn the agency or the person that you are flagging,” he said.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President is not interfering with the work of COA but merely expressing his frustration over COA’s penchant for publicizing initial reports.
COA flagged DOH for alleged deficiencies in the use of over P67.3 billion funds for the COVID-19 efforts.
Duterte said there are no missing funds and deficiencies flagged by COA referred to incomplete documentary requirements.
“Pag mag-ano ang COA, magsabi lang iyan siya deficiency na mga ganon-ganon, hindi man sabihin na deficiency na ninakaw mo iyung pera. Deficiencies in, really in producing the necessary documents to complete the story. Imposible magnakaw ka ng P67.3 [billion] (When COA says deficiency, that deficiency doesn’t mean that the money was stolen.
Deficiencies in, really producing the necessary documents to complete the story. It’s impossible to steal P67.3 billion),” he said.
Duterte also said he previously ordered various government agencies to make emergency procurement or loans to equip facilities, especially the DOH, with everything they need to fight the pandemic.
He added that the country is in the middle of a health emergency and it is a matter of life or death.
“So you have to understand and give it a little elbow room to move, make emergency purchases, avail of loans,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
Health Undersecretary Leopoldo Vega, during the Talk to the People address, said the DOH has partially resolved issues raised by COA over the alleged deficiencies in procurement, documents and procedures, “with no findings of lost funds or corruption.”
RESIGNATION
The President said he will reject Duque’s resignation if he decides to resign because he believes the secretary did not do anything wrong.
“Alam ko na gusto mo nang mag-resign pero alam mo rin na tatanggihan kita. You have attempted to resign twice. I expect you to say something to me (I know that you want to resign, but you also know that I will reject it. You have attempted to resign twice. I expect you to say something to me),” Duterte said.
He said Duque had not done anything wrong and had in fact been working hard.
He said if there were any wrongdoings committed, just file a case.
Roque said the pronouncements of Duterte about Duque meant the Health Secretary still enjoys the trust and confide of the President.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymond Villafuerte said the House should slash the department’s budget for 2022 should its top officials “fall flat” in justifying the alleged “criminal negligence” in failing to use all of its COVID-19 funds last year. — With Raymond Africa
