Duterte: COA should keep hands off mayors’ programs

Commission on Audit  (COA) building. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

President Duterte on Tuesday said the Commission on Audit should not interfere in mayor’s programs intended to help their constituents, eliciting applause from local chief executives during a gathering in Manila.

Mr. Duterte, a long-time Davao City mayor before he became President, made the statement as he recalled an instance where the audit agency had questioned his program to host a mass wedding for poor couples, especially those who had been living together for so long.

He noted that the COA had disallowed the funding for the program.

He recalled that he had talked to the COA officer, and told him: “Gusto mo ihulog kita dito (Do you want me to drop you here)?”

He also asked the COA officer why he disallowed the program and was being made to pay for helping the poor.

Addressing the COA in his speech on Tuesday, he said mayors should be given leeway in deciding on the programs they need to implement.

“Do not do the program for us. You were not elected by the people. It is us. Our programs are part of social alleviation. We should be the ones choosing what programs of government would be beneficial to the people. Do not do it for us,” he said in gathering of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, drawing applause from the audience.

If the COA officials think they know better, they should run for mayor, he added, to louder claps and cheers.

They should not put malice in the mayors’ projects, he further said.

“Your job is to check if the money reached the people, or the thing you gave to the community. Was it really worth the while of the pockets of the citizens? Do not put malice there because not everyone is like that. Maybe that’s just how you look at it,” he said.

According to him, no mayor wants to face a case before the Sandiganbayan. He also commiserated with local officials who had been included in cases just for signing documents.

Mr. Duterte also reiterated his position on Tuesday that the practice of getting the lowest bidder for government projects should be done away with, as it was a source of corruption.

The government should go for quality, he said.

The problem with getting the lowest bidder was that the bidder may have to pay off certain officials first, which would then force it to cut corners on the actual project, he said.