Massive amounts of public funds in the trillions of pesos have been lost, never to be recovered, because the recent crop of Commission on Audit commissioners was not earnestly concerned for the best interest of the public but for their best interests and those of their friends.

The appointment of disoriented CoA commissioners had resulted in an equally disoriented Commission Proper.

The late President Noynoy Aquino destroyed CoA, and by damaging CoA he destroyed the country.

Noynoy Aquino based his appointment of officials to sensitive positions along political lines. Former CoA Chairperson Grace Pulido Tan, like Florencio Abad, was a member of the Hyatt 10. Her expertise was on taxation and very little or none at all on government auditing. Pulido Tan was disoriented about the constitutional function of CoA.

Heidi Mendoza was appointed on the recommendation of civil society groups and nuns. No one from CoA recommended her for the post.

Mendoza was never a CoA director, never an assistant commissioner. She was appointed to the position of commissioner and the lofty United Nations post through her main backer, Noynoy Aquino.

Tan and Mendoza committed culpable violations of the Constitution and/or graft and corruption for failing to focus on their constitutional duties and responsibilities because they were often out of the country.

Tan traveled 33 times. While she was chairman, she was out of the country for over 500 days or more than one year. Mendoza was abroad for fewer days than Tan, but enough for civil service authorities to conclude that both had been neglecting their duties at home.

The day after the release of the CoA Special Audit Report on 16 August 2013, Chairperson Tan and the CoA auditors who audited the PDAF flew to Hong Kong for a team-building vacation, but they came home quickly when they learned their trip had hit the tabloids’ front pages.

According to retired and senior CoA auditors, the administration of the Tan-Mendoza tandem at CoA, and of Florencio Abad at DBM, was comparable to the Holocaust in Germany during the Second World War. They called it The Holocaust in Philippine Fiscal Administration.

The release of the PDAF Report 2012-2013 by Tan was devastating worldwide:

1. It damaged the reputation of the Commission on Audit;

2. It damaged the image of the Department of Budget and Management;

3. It damaged the international standing of the Philippine Senate; and

4. Also that of the House of Representatives, and

5. It unnecessarily damaged the image of the Philippines.

The following official documents constituted the instruments of the Holocaust in the Philippine Fiscal Administration:

1. National Budget Circular No. 541 issued by Secretary Florencio Abad on 18 July 2012 — that was declared illegal by the Supreme Court;

2. Philippine CoA Circular 2011-002 issued by Chairperson Tan on 22 July 2011 involving the withdrawal of pre-audit resulting in non-audit and non-inspection of Dengvaxia and 48 train coaches for MRT 3 before payment;

3. Unnumbered CoA Memorandum Circular Issued by Tan on 10 May 2013, on Designation of Responsibilities of Commissioners and Implementing Rules in violation of the Constitutional requirement that on matters to be decided by the Commission Proper, CoA should act as a collegial body.

Today, the CoA rank and file are praying that the present Commission Proper will earnestly be concerned for the best interest of the public, rather than for their own interests and those of their friends.

“We hope they will be unlike their predecessors.”