Way Kurat’s daughter slams COA

By: Leila B. Salaverria - 11 years ago

Manuel ‘Way Kurat’ Zamora. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The damage caused by the erroneous report of the Commission on Audit (COA) that then Compostela Valley Rep. Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora received P3 billion in pork barrel between 2007-2009 was something that he and his family would have to live with, according to his daughter, now a lawmaker herself.

Compostela Valley Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora cast doubts on the COA and castigated it as “incompetent” for releasing unverified, inaccurate reports.

She said she was waiting for the COA to admit its mistake on the P3-billion pork allocation, which the budget department had already debunked by saying the amount went to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

She lamented that her father, who was known for his modest lifestyle and even went to the office riding a bike, was not even informed about the audit.

‘Carelessly prepared’

At the same time, she wondered what other errors could be present in the agency’s voluminous report on the alleged misuse of legislators’ pork barrel, or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which she said was carelessly prepared and distributed.

“The COA is thus not infallible: Its credibility and its role in the system of checks and balances are things I now deeply question,” she said in a privilege speech on Monday afternoon.

“We now patiently await the COA’s recognition and admission of this mistake. This will at least right a wrong so grievously committed against my father, and the House of Representatives as an institution,” she added.

Call for caution

Other lawmakers sympathized with the Zamoras, with 1BAP Rep. Silvestre Bello saying the COA chief should make a public apology.

Demaree Raval, vice president of Transparency International Philippines, also called for caution when judging members of Congress based on the COA report on the PDAF.

Raval said the COA report was still subject to validation.

“Let’s go easy on making judgments. Until we get the Ombudsman to lodge indictments against those members of our Congress who actually conspired with fake NGOs, we cannot say for sure that this senator or that congressman is guilty of anything,” he said in a statement.