CoA 2023 AAR, the best ever (4)

God is in control, that is why there will be peace! Trump is a positive factor that can unite even the warring tribes. Above all: Trump and Putin are God-centered. I have seen both of them making the sign of the cross.

President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr. would not have allowed it. You all three — Grace Pulido Tan, Heidi Mendoza, and Michael Aguinaldo — could have been banished immediately to the abyss of oblivion to stop you from doing more harm and shame to the Filipino people.

In the same manner, as what he did to all officials of the Commission on Audit (CoA) in 1975. “For the last three years, I have been watching the conduct of officers and employees in the national, as well as in the local, government. It is my duty as President of the Republic of the Philippines to reward what is proper, dedicated and devoted service by a public servant, and by the same token, to punish for violation of the sacred trust of a public official.”

I am a living witness to what the father of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. did to the officials and employees of the Commission on Audit when they became dysfunctional in the exercise of their constitutional duties to audit. President Marcos Sr. did not allow a single one of them to do his dirty trade.

The President fired all the top officials of CoA, and all the corrupt auditors and inspectors.

I was very young then, strong, alive and kicking, and newly appointed editor-in-chief of the CoA Journal and CoA Bulletin, the mouthpieces of the audit office of the country. Chairman Francisco Tantuico Jr. directed me to write an editorial to exhort the remaining auditing personnel. Please allow me to print it now in full.

In a time when our people are becoming impatient and the auditor’s actions are held up to question and sometimes scorn, there is a need, as never before, for honest, prompt, sincere and efficient service.

All our reorganizational efforts aimed at streamlining personnel structure; updating accounting principles, rules and regulations; systematizing reporting and evaluation techniques and upgrading the technical competence of auditing personnel through comprehensive training programs will come to naught if we fail to perceive the reality — that many of us need to reorient our thinking and values.

One vital ingredient is necessary if we intend to even come close to the issues of the day. That is attitude.

It is obvious that transitory drives and exhortations to get involved are not nearly enough. In our effort toward change, to shape the programs, channel the energies of concerned people, and follow them through the end, we must all have an effective, rational and farsighted attitude.

We felt the full impact of the purge, which reflected very badly on our institution.

Dishonesty, corruption, indecisiveness and failure to be candid have caused the downfall of a number of our auditing personnel.

We have an obligation to have the kind of concerned, responsible and positive attitude needed in the community and the nation. Many of us are ideally qualified for such a role because our training and experience are directed toward a rational solution to problems. To those of us who are not should strive to do so.

President Ferdinand E. Marcos in his “Notes on the New Society” exhorts every one of us to create a new situation that would encourage every Filipino to depend on one another for the achievement of social goals, to resurrect the “Bayanihan” spirit, for this human solidarity and cooperation, this sense of community, is not just a moral precept but a necessity of our time: the very complexity of collective life and enormities of its problems demand of us a united zeal unprecedented in the history of peoples and mankind.

(To be continued)