Looking at the data, Region XI (Davao Region) got the largest allocation, hitting 41.95 million out of the total P160.08 million questionable fund allocation of NTF-ELCAC.
Duterte is from Davao City, which is in Region XI.
In the newly released 2020 audit report of the COA, up to P160.08 million “highly questionable” fund transfers from TESDA were received by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) even though “there is no proper authority/legal basis” and appropriate guidelines on how to use the money.
“Audit showed that from the CY 2020 appropriation, TESDA-CO transferred to [Regional Offices] a total amount of P160,083,401.61 for the implementation of [Executive Order] No. 70,” COA said.
In the initial review of ELCAC’s P6-million fund augmentation for Region XII (Soccsksargen), it appears that there are “questionable activities” and money has been allocated.
TESDA and NTF-ELCAC have not yet made a statement regarding the observations released by the commission so far.
Among the findings in Region XII are the following:
Davao Region got the biggest allocation from NTF-ELCAC’s questionable funds
It was only Monday night when Duterte’s head heated up over the COA’s flagging to the DOH last year while insisting that “no corruption has occurred” in the P63.7 billion budget that would have been set aside for the COVID-19 response.
He said that the COA should not audit first while his administration is not over, even though the commission has been doing it every year even before.
On the other hand, Gabriela secretary general Joms Salvador was annoyed by Duterte’s behavior last night, especially since this is how the commission works to ensure that there is no corruption.
“It is well within COA’s Constitutional mandate to look into how public funds are spent and to publicize their audit reports of government agencies. That’s after all why COA was created,” Salvador said on Tuesday.
“It is, meanwhile, never within the president’s mandate to defend and cover up for spending anomalies in executive agencies and public offices created by him like the DOH, TESDA, NTF-ELCAC, and heaven knows what else.”
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