President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his sixth and final State of the Nation Address on July 26, 2021. (Photo from an RTVM YouTube live stream)
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s telling the Commission on Audit (COA) to “stop flagging” possible misuse of government funds is a “brazen coverup” of corruption, an alliance of University of the Philippines faculty and staff said on Tuesday.
Under the Constitution, the COA as an independent constitutional commission is mandated to examine and audit all uses of government funds and property to prevent “irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or unconscionable expenditures.”
For this reason, the Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (Contend-UP) viewed the president’s statement as “criminal negligence at its worst.”
“What is he even talking about? The COA is only doing its job especially amid this government’s criminal negligence in handling the worst health and economic crisis to ever hit the country,” said Dr. Melania Flores, president of the All-UP Academic Employees Union.
In a late-night address on Monday, Duterte told state auditors to stop publishing its reports as they would taint government agencies with “corruption by perception” — a complete turnaround from his presidential promise to crack down hard on corruption.
He made the statement after the agency published separate reports on the alleged “deficiencies” in the use of billions of pesos by the Departments of Health, Education, Social Work and Development, and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
“Stop that flagging, goddamnit!” Duterte told COA. “Do not flag and do not publish it [audit report] because it will condemn the agency or the person that you are flagging.”
In its audit report on the DOH, COA said the “deficiencies” in the handling of the department’s P67.3-billion pandemic response fund undermined the timely and efficient response to the pandemic last year. The deficiencies were caused by noncompliance with pertinent laws, rules, and regulations, it said.
COA said the DOH failed to utilize P59.124 billion of its P200.9-billion 2020 budget and it was unable to use as much as P11.8 billion of the COVID-19 funds, which meant that these “were not translated [into] much-needed health supplies, equipment and services that could have benefited both the health workers and the general public during the critical times of the pandemic.”
Flores said that the funds whose use had been marked by deficiencies found by COA would have been more than enough to cover the P11.8 billion budget cut suffered by the higher education sector or the P456 million slashed from the Philippine General Hospital in 2020.
“While we the people bear the brunt of repeated lockdowns, loss of livelihood, and lack of adequate healthcare services, we see the Duterte government displaying utter incompetence and lack of urgency in addressing the people’s needs,” she said.
“This is a brazen coverup,” she added.
Contend-UP Chairman Gerardo Lanuza said the “sheer scale of unspent funds … evoked hints of corruption” and that the heads of the concerned agencies, especially Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, must resign.
“That billions of pesos for pandemic response and financial aid have not reached their intended beneficiaries cannot but make us feel uneasy given that 2022 is just around the corner,” he said.
Militant groups again questioned why Duterte had been “coddling” Duque despite his allegedly questionable track record during the COVID-19 crisis.
Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas Chairman Danilo Ramos said the president’s “endless defense” of Duque was “sickening and smacked of irresponsibility.”
“Both Duterte and Duque can be blamed for the country’s helpless COVID-19 situation. Our health workers are already weary and suffering from low morale, the least Duterte could do is to admonish Duque. However, Duterte got Duque’s back again,” Ramos said.
Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes said the President’s warnings to the COA were akin to “green-lighting” corruption.
“President Duterte has excelled in his role as the chair of the Komite de Abswelto, clearing Duque of any liability even before the COA has concluded its audit findings,” he said.
“To insist that COA should stop publishing audit findings is to cover up corruption. By his words, Duterte enables the commission of government misdeeds,” Reyes said.