Duterte office crafting guidelines on unused donations flagged by COA—Palace

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the President (OP) is crafting guidelines on how to efficiently use unused donations flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA), Malacañang said Friday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the OP is also studying efforts on how to address other findings of COA in its latest report.

“As per the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Office of the President is already working on the guidelines and studying how to best address the findings of the Commission on Audit, which include how donations will be effectively and efficiently utilized,” Roque said in a statement.

COA earlier flagged OP’s unused grants and donations amounting to P1.4 billion from Benpres Corporation.

Benpres Corporation, now called Lopez Holdings Corporation, is the flagship company of the Lopez family and comprises Rockwell Land Corporation, ABS-CBN Corporation, among other businesses.

State auditors also questioned OP over the irregular foreign travels of some officials.

In its recent report, COA flagged Duterte’s office for allowing some government officials to travel abroad even if the requests were made less than the prescribed period before their date of departure.

JPV