(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, Sept. 19, hit back at former Commission on Audit commissioner Heidi Mendoza, after she defended the audit agency from the chief executive’s tirades.
“Hindi niya ako malecture-an because I was ahead of her by a mile dyan sa understanding sa nitty-gritty. You convict a person by a circular? Not even by law and it’s a violation of circular. A circular? What is its dimension? Does it reach the level of both national and local?” Duterte said during the oath-taking of officials of the Liga ng mga Barangay in Malacanang.
He was apparently referring to a COA circular that limits the use of cash advances to the purchase of food.
Duterte earlier called the circular “stupid,” and joked in a briefing on the effects of “Ompong” that officials should push a COA employee who refuses to authorize the grant of cash advances for the purchase of construction materials to restore houses destroyed by the typhoon down the stairs.
Mendoza, in a Facebook post, called on the President to respect the COA “for we deserve it.”
“Not with us Sir! We are a long standing, dignified institution whose men and women spent long hours working for its flag and our people. Some of our own even laid their lives defending and protecting public coffers,” Mendoza said.
“We are a constitutional Commission and not one of the past Honorable Presidents of our land has called on another institution subject under our authority to defy our rules. Yes, some might be outdated, others might be impractical to some, but it is actually in balancing flexibility and accountability where the real challenge lies!” she added.