Commissioner Heidi Mendoza announced on 27 April 2011 in Washington D.C., in her own words, “CoA is putting into place mechanisms to examine the pork barrel allocations of members of Congress to bring transparency to a process that has been mired in corruption almost from its inception.”

Mendoza had expressed no liking for congressmen during her lectures in forums sponsored by the Communication Foundation for Asia telecast worldwide on 28 February 2008.

The mechanism announced by Mendoza to be used in the audit of the pork barrel of members of Congress was none other than the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA).

The objectionable portion of this form of audit was its mechanism of premature release of adverse findings to the public, like the audit observation memorandum (AOM) which showed there were deficiencies totaling P67.32 billion in the DoH’s Covid-19 funds.

The audit mechanism used in the critical audit review of the pork barrel of the lawmakers was so well crafted.

Similar to the secrecy of a military operation, and with the intent to destroy the targets by surprise to maximize the effectiveness of its devastating force, CoA launched its audit mechanism.

A few months before the formal release of the results of the audit of the pork barrel of lawmakers, tiny flyers were found on tables of restaurants along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, containing names of congressmen and senators. Prominently mentioned, among others, were then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, and Senator Bong Revilla, who were allegedly found with huge illegal disbursements of their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

Coincidentally, Enrile was the chairman of the Commission on Appointments responsible for the confirmation of the appointments of presidential appointees, and Estrada was the chairman for the confirmation of presidential appointees for constitutional offices at the commission level.

Heidi Mendoza’s appointment was the most bypassed in the history of the confirmation process of the Commission on Appointments. Up to the last hour of the confirmation process, before the plenary, Senator Estrada continued to question Mendoza on her capability to make mistakes reflective of her incompetence. Heidi refused to accept this. Up to that point she remained under question by Estrada.

Bowing to Palace pressure, Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, majority floor leader, accepted for Mendoza her being capable of making a mistake, just so they could move on to the plenary. Technically speaking, it was Congressman Fariñas who was confirmed as CoA commissioner, not Mendoza, because up to the last hour, Senator Estrada stood his ground.

Came the release of the CoA Special Audit Report No. 2012-3 on 16 August 2013. After three years and four months of auditing, strictly in accordance with the audit mechanism announced by Commissioner Mendoza in America, CoA Chair Grace Pulido Tan dropped two booming audit reports, first on 16 August 2013 via telecast worldwide or in a manner seen and heard throughout the world; and second, a few months after, Tan dropped another audit bomb that she would release 6,000 notices of disallowance covering illegal disbursements of PDAF funds.

The release of PDAF Audit Report No. 2012-3 was similar to the dropping of the two atomic bombs on Japan. The aftermath was devastating. Prominent names and innocent lawmakers were unnecessarily exposed to global shame.

Unnecessarily, the PDAF Audit Report damaged the reputation of the Philippine Senate, the House of Representatives, the Commission on Audit, the Department of Budget and Management, and the image of the Republic of the Philippines.

(To be continued)