Duterte digs up COA findings on De Lima, Roxas departments under Aquino

(Updated @ 4:00 a.m., Aug. 25, 2021)

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III flagged unliquidated cash advances and transfers to various projects amounting to more than P7.6 billion in the Department of Justice (DOJ), then under Leila de Lima, who is now a senator, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), then headed by Mar Roxas.

President Rodrigo Duterte brought up the supposed findings on Tuesday during his taped weekly televised briefing.

According to Duterte, the DOJ unliquidated cash advances, incurred in 2013, totaled P617.44 million, and the DILG fund transfers, made in 2014, totaled P7 billion.

The DOJ had denied it had over P600 million in unliquidated cash advances.

READ: DOJ denies it has P600 million in unliquidated cash advances

Meanwhile, it was under a 2013 COA report where the DILG under Roxas was flagged for P7.040 billion unliquidated fund transfers “due to non-monitoring of liquidations and submission of financial reports.”

READ: UNA hits Roxas for P7-B unliquidated DILG fund transfers

Roxas’s camp then explained that the funds were unliquidated as the projects were still being implemented.

The president compared these findings to the “deficiencies” that COA found in the use of COVID-19 funds of the  Department of Health under Secretary Francisco Duque III.

“Ito kay Duque nag-bili e. Ito, nag cash advance, nag-bale,” Duterte said. “Sabihin ninyo ngayon, ito kay De Lima ang pinakamaingay…Ngayon si De Lima maingay, sige nga, mag ingay ka nga ngayon.”

[Translation: “In the case of Duque, it was for purchases. This one [under Aquino] were cash advances.”]

Earlier, Duterte brushed off the possibility of corruption being behind the DOH “deficiencies,” saying it would be “impossible” for anyone to steal P67.3 billion.

The DOH has made an assurance that it was addressing the deficiencies marked by COA.

ATM