Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 5) — The Commission on Audit (COA) has signed a memorandum to start looking into the transactions the government made with the Philippine Red Cross (PRC).
“I am pleased to learn about the prompt response of COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo to our call to audit the Philippine Red Cross,” President Rodrigo Duterte said in his taped weekly address that aired late Monday night.
He said the signed memorandum was dated Sept. 23, 2021. Under this, all concerned COA officials and offices are directed to submit to the agency’s Fraud Audit office a compilation of their findings per sector on the subsidies and/or fund transfers received and utilized by the PRC from January 2016 to September 2021.
They shall also submit a duly signed summary schedule of subsidies and/or funds received by PRC on the same period.
Duterte has been criticizing senators, especially Sen. Richard Gordon, as they continue investigating the government’s purchases of COVID-10 supplies.
Gordon is the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee conducting the probe, and the PRC.
Earlier, Aguinaldo said COA has no power to audit the humanitarian agency despite the chief executive’s demand.
He noted, however, that it can only scrutinize the payments delivered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) to the PRC.
Meanwhile, Duterte also reminded COA of its “constitutional duty” to collect the ₱140 million worth of notice of disallowance issued against Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority during Gordon’s time as its chairperson in the 90s.
Such amount of money can still be used to inject more funds to purchase more COVID-19 vaccines, he noted.
