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- President Duterte criticizes COA.
- Imee Marcos complains about COA’s restrictions towards cash advances for the Typhoon Ompong aftermath.
The Commission on Audit (COA) was slammed by President Rodrigo Duterte regarding the prohibition on some government spending.
In an interagency briefing of Typhoon Ompong in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Governor Imee Marcos stated that the COA does not allow any cash advances for the purchasing of new building materials for the disaster victims.
This resulted to the President asking if there was any COA employees present as they should be pushed down the stairs.
“Sino taga COA dito? Ihulog muna sa hagdanan para hindi maka-report. Maniwala ka niyang COA na ‘yan. You know, you just do it by circular and then they expect everybody to obey. Mga circular, pakialam ko?”
Marcos responded to Duterte’s remark by clapping and saying “Yes, yes!”
The governor added that the COA only allowed them to request up to ₱15,000 cash advances for food. “P15,000 po ang puwedeng cash – ‘yan si Mayor Gladys [Cue] ng Currimao – P15,000 ang puwedeng i-cash advance and only for food, kahit calamity. Roofing, wala lahat. Lahat hindi puwedeng i-cash advance and this occurred over the weekend, which made things more difficult sir.”
Duterte then continued criticizing the agency.
“Some guys in the government went to jail based on a circular, and other guys went scot-free because of the same circular. Ganun ka cockeyed. Depende na lang saan nila eh whether they swing the legal arguments
“Kaya nga circular lang ‘yan eh. Make it a law or a regulation, but don’t give me that s*** of circular.”
Ilocos Norte incurred a ₱2.3 billion worth of damage because of Typhoon Ompong.
