President Duterte issued no threats against the Commission on Audit (COA) after it released an audit report on how the Department of Health (DOH) managed its funds for the pandemic response, Malacañang said Tuesday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque explained that the President continued to respect COA as an independent constitutional body and merely urged the agency to avoid releasing preliminary observations pending a full inquiry to avoid misconceptions of irregularities in an agency.
According to Roque, the final audit report should be instead be made public so it could be basis for any filing of cases before the court.
"I don't think he made any threat. He expressed frustrations," Roque said during a televised press briefing Tuesday about the President's latest rebuke of COA over flagging deficiencies in government agencies.
"I guess ang sinasabi lang ni Presidente frustrated siya kasi ang basa ng taumbayan sa initial observations eh mayroon nang condemnation. Eh hindi naman po ganoon ang proseso kasi pati sa COA alam nila na initial observations – sasagutin tapos saka sila magkakaroon ng final report (I guess the President said he is frustrated because there is already condemnation when the public saw the initial observations. But that's not the process because even COA knows that during the initial observations, the concerned party is given a chance to reply then a final report will be made)," he said.
Roque said when a preliminary COA report is released to the public, it sparked unfair perception that the concerned agency is already guilty of corruption or inefficiency.
"Siguro ang gusto mangyari ni Presidente, huwag muna isapubliko ang preliminary observations na hindi pa naman nasasagot ng ahensya (Maybe the President wanted the preliminary investigations should not yet be made public because the agency has yet to respond)," he said.
"Talaga naman pong obligasyon ng COA na gumawa ng final report on an annual basis eh siguro iyon talaga ang dapat i-publicize (It is really the obligation of COA to make a final report on an annual basis so maybe that should be the one publicized)," he added.
In a televised address Monday, August 16, the President asked the audit commission to "stop flagging" deficiencies in government agencies.
Duterte made the comment after hitting back at COA for flagging the Department of Health's management of P67.3 billion for pandemic response, saying it was impossible to steal the money. He asked COA to give agencies some "elbow room" to move since the country was facing a public health emergency.
"Stop that flagging, goddammit. You make a report. Do not flag and do not publish it because it will condemn the agency or the person that you are flagging," he said.
"Huwag naman sige kayong flag nang flag. Tapos wala namang napreso, wala naman lahat (Don't just keep on flagging, then no one goes to jail anyway). And yet you know that when you flag, there is already a taint of corruption by perception," he added.
The health department earlier assured that it has started to address the concerns raised by COA.