26 September 2013
In light of the strafing incident and Jinggoy’s privilege speech
CoA must disclose all PDAF and Malampaya Fund audit reports
Unfazed by the recent alleged strafing of the offices of the Commission on Audit (CoA), members of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) picketed the agency to demand the full disclosure of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Malampaya Fund audit reports.
Dissatisfied with the claims made by Palace officials that President Aquino spent his discretionary funds frugally and prudently, the BMP demanded that the agency reveal its complete and impartial audit reports of the Malampaya fund for the years 2010 up to 2012, the years under the present government and not only the years under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.
“No less than the President has been trumpeting transparency and good governance, the CoA may as well start with the Malampaya funds. Regardless if Commissioner Grace Pulido-Tan is a Malacanang appointee or not, she remains duty-bound to no less than the 1987 Constitution which states under Section 28, Article 2 that, “the State adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest,” said Leody de Guzman, chairperson of BMP.
In January of this year, the Commission released Circular 2013-04, notifying all departments, agencies, government corporations and local government units to abide by the very same constitutional provision.
“The CoA must not wonder why it is under heavy fire from all quarters, the masses are sickened that the trajectory of their selective and biased audit disclosures are primarily in the service of the Palace officials and not to quench our countrymen’s thirst for justice,” the labor leader alleged.
De Guzman added that, “The recent attack on the CoA may have been aimed to harass CoA employees in revealing the whole truth about the abuses of government officials. The workers and the poor also appeal for reason, hoping the CoA would hear the people’s cry for justice. We do not rely on terror which thrives on fear rather than on sober logic”.
The group likewise queried why the agency failed to mention in its Special Audit report how then Senator, Noynoy Aquino disbursed his PDAF allocations from 2007 up to 2009. “It appears that CoA does not want to pry open the Pandora's box of corruption lest it discloses the same modus operandi by Aquino and the Liberal Party on the nation's coffers," de Guzman predicted.###
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