Press Officer of Malacañang Reacts To Claim of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s Camp on COA Findings
MALACAÑANG – The Palace cited the Commission on Audit or COA’s Notice of Disallowance on the Office of the Vice President (OVP) may be due to the possibility of “excessive and questionable spendings”.
For more than a year now, Vice Pres. Duterte remains surrounded by questions about the alleged misused of the Confidential Funds of the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd). Her camp maintained that they will answer to allegations in the proper forum.
The Supreme Court recently declared the impeachment complaint against Duterte as “unconstitutional” for not following the one year rule. Amid the calls for the Senate impeachment trial to proceed, the Senate archived the impeachment case against Vice Pres. Sara Duterte.
Malacañang previously claimed that the Palace respects the Supreme Court’s ruling but does not necessarily mean they agree with the decision of the court. As for Pres. Bongbong Marcos, the Supreme Court ruling on Duterte’s impeachment has “no bearing on merits” of the case saying the court judged it based on the procedure.
Recently, with regards to the budget spending of the OVP which has become controversial since the allegations of misused confidential funds crossed the surface, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte’s camp spoke on the findings of COA (Commission on Audit). According to Atty. Michael Poa, the COA findings did not state any corruption or pocketing of funds “from the audit observation memorandum, which is the first issuance of their findings all the way to the notice of disallowance”.
Poa also claimed that COA just wants the OVP submit more documents to see that the funds were used properly. However, Malacañang has a different say on COA’s Notice of Disallowance on the office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, Atty. Claire Castro, the Palace press officer undersecretary, claimed that the Notice of Disallowance by COA is allegedly not merely about the lack of pertinent documents. She stressed that could mean questionable spendings of the budget of a government office.
“Tandaan po natin nagkaroon na po ng notice of disallowance at kapag sinabi po natin notice of disallowance hindi lamang ito basta-basta kulang sa dokumento, nagsasabi ito na maaaring mayroong mga irregular, excessive at questionable spendings sa paggastos, so there’s sa presumption of misuse of funds,” the Malacañang press official said.
Atty. Claire Castro also asked Atty. Michael Poa to further explain the supposed use of certifications from the military to back the P15 million spendings with no receipts. Based on the report, she stressed that it was Poa himself who admitted it during a hearing.
“Kung saan ang 15 million pesos na confidential funds ng DepEd ay nagamit at kumuha lamang sila ng mga certificates para sa youth leadership summit. Pero ito po ay inamin na hindi po ito ginastusan ng DepEd,” the Malacañang press officer expressed.
Castro said it would be best if it would come from Poa himself what happened to the P15 million where they only used certificates from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) although DepEd claimed that they did not use their confidential funds for it.