Commission on Audit. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Following reports of unfinished contracts worth billions in the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Bayan Muna party-list group has wondered where the pandemic aid budget has gone when it has such a large budget for weaponry.
“While the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are awash with apparently dark funds, the Duterte administration continues to say that there are none for aid to our pandemic, fatigued citizens,” said House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate on Tuesday.
Zarate said this after the Commission on Audit (COA), in its annual audit report flagged both AFP, and PNP over billions in unfinished contracts for the fiscal year 2020.
COA’s latest audit report shows that 41 projects totaling P6,812,295,233.40 have not been completed within the contract period.
The military also has nine suspended projects amounting to P940,463,472.13 and one terminated project worth P12,212,589.83.
Meanwhile, the PNP’s Special Action Force has unfulfilled procurement contracts worth P1,693,669,525.55.
READ: PNP to check unmet contracts amounting to almost P1.7B
“Added all together this amounts to at P9.352 billion that could have been used to help our kababayans. Di pala kayang tapusin ang mga proyekto pero hingi ng hingi ng budget sa halip na itinulong na lang sana ito sa mga naghihirap sa ngayon (it turns out that they can’t finish the projects but they asked for more instead of just helping those who are suffering now),” said Zarate.
“These unspent budgets can also be a source of corruption within the AFP and the PNP so this must be scrutinized deeply and very carefully. Another redflag here is that the supposed unspent budget can also be used in preparation for the coming elections, so we must be doubly vigilant,” he added.
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