MANILA – The Commission on Audit (COA) has also flagged two agencies under the Aquino administration for alleged unliquidated cash advances and fund transfers, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said on Tuesday.
During his pre-recorded Talk to the People, Duterte brought up the issue as he defended Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who had been heavily criticized following the COA’s report on the Department of Health’s management of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic funds allocated last year.
COA had previously reported the Department of Justice (DOJ) under then-secretary and now-jailed Senator Leila de Lima for unliquidated cash advances in 2013, he stated.
“‘Mayroon dito ha (There’s this) agency, DOJ, under (then) secretary Leila de Lima, unliquidated (PHP617.44) million worth of cash advance in the year 2013,” he said. “Nakulong na lang ang g***, hindi niya ma-account itong ano. Tapos sabi nila, nag-press release na na-liquidate na raw (That stupid is now detained and could not account for this [COA report]. She just issued a press release saying it was already liquidated).”
Duterte also cited the previous COA report on the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) unliquidated fund transfers, which was headed by then secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
He said that the fund transfers reached PHP7.04 billion as a result of the failure to oversee the liquidation and filing of financial reports.
“(The) DILG, unliquidated PHP7 billion worth of fund transfers to various projects implemented under the term of former DILG secretary Mar Roxas, as of Dec. 31, 2014,” Duterte said.
De Lima was also chastised by the President for criticizing his administration without taking into account her questionable financial transactions while at the DOJ.
On Monday, de Lima accused Duterte of “corrupting” COA by ordering the agency to “reconfigure” its audit reports to state that flagged agencies are not corrupt.
Duterte then turned the tables on de Lima, reminding her that she needed to respond to the COA’s previous findings on the DOJ.
“Ngayon, si de Lima, maingay. Sige nga, mag-ingay ka nga ngayon (Now, de Lima is making noise. Go ahead, make a noise),” he said. “Mabuti nang malaman ng Pilipino kung sino ‘yung magnanakaw (Filipinos should know who’s the thief).”
The DOJ denied in November 2014 that it had PHP617.44 million in cash advances. ” Nearly all unliquidated cash advances have been properly liquidated,” the report stated.
The Liberal Party, on the other hand, claimed in 2016 that the PHP7 billion fund transfers made by the Roxas-led DILG were unliquidated because the funded projects were still being implemented.
