"What happened to the whiff?"
President Duterte has never been a fan of the Commission on Audit. He once joked about pushing a COA auditor down the stairs because of cash advances that were not allowed. On another occasion, he talked about kidnapping and torturing auditors.
This week he once again lashed out at the constitutional commission, which had published its Annual Audit Report flagging the Department of Health for irregularities amounting to P67.3 billion.
During his customary late-night speech, he told the COA to stop flagging agencies because it taints these institutions and individuals, giving the impression that they are corrupt. What the COA is in fact doing, he said, is “flogging” these agencies, and the COA should stop publishing these reports.
He further defended Health officials by saying that we are at a time of emergency and they must be given elbow room to do their jobs.
“It is a matter of life and death,” he said.
Last week, too, the COA issued a clarification saying that its report did not specifically point to corruption, after social media users expressed outrage over the staggering amount involved in the findings.
But the commission has refused to comment on the President’s rant, with its Public Information Office saying they cannot offer any additional information other than those included in their annual reports, which are published on its web site for transparency purposes.
What gall it must take to tinker with our state auditors’ constitutional mandate to look into the affairs of government agencies!
And, lest we forget, part of the COA’s process of conducting audits is to seek comments and clarifications from the agency before any reports are published. Why, then, did not the DOH set the record straight when it was first informed of the findings of irregularity? Why only now, after the public backlash has been so great?
Mr. Duterte says it is a matter of life and death. On this, we agree completely. The unenlightened—and we are putting it mildly—use of public funds to respond to a protracted health crisis is, indeed, a matter of life and death.
The President once said he would not tolerate even the whiff of corruption in his government. We can only surmise that the COVID-19 pandemic has altered his sense of smell—much to our nation’s detriment.
