The officials, the rank and file of the Commission on Audit, and this writer, with all humility, are most respectfully recommending Assistant Commissioner Roy Ursal, who for the first time in ten years of their lives will be appointed by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos as CoA Chief. Ursal, a CPA and lawyer, is the person of their choice. He is the like of CoA chairman Francisco Tantuico, who was appointed by President Ferdinand Sr. in 1975.
He is the nephew of former CoA Commissioner Sofronio Ursal of Cebu Tacloban.
Roy Ursal hails from Cebu, reared and educated in Cebu and Tacloban. He is presently head of the Commission Proper Adjudication Sector, the office that handles all legal matters submitted to CoA for adjudication. His expertise and skill in analysis of all accounts in the trial balance learned from the old school of the General Auditing Office will help in the speedy resolution of thousands of cases and provide the administration of Bongbong Marcos, a clean slate for the new records of the Rise of the Golden Age of the New Maharlika, as envisioned by Ferdinand Sr.
In 1975, President Ferdinand E. Marcos singled out CoA as one of the offices in the government which had to be completely reorganized. Upon the advice of his Cabinet, he appointed Associate Justice of The Court of Appeals, Atty. Francisco S. Tantuico, as Acting Chairperson of CoA. Justice Tantuico was an excellent choice, for being a lawyer he fitted perfectly for the position that exercises quasi-judicial function. He readily understood the imperative need to restore, strengthen, and preserve the integrity, objectivity, and independence of CoA, including its representatives and personnel assigned to all government entities, to effectuate the constitutional design of a truly independent auditing arm of the government.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, like his father Ferdinand Sr., has God and history on his side. The position of CoA chairperson was left vacant thrice: first, by Michael Aguinaldo; second, by Rizalina Justol; and third, by Jose Calida. Was it divine intervention that the position was left vacant thrice?
The Auditor cites the following reasons why God has to intervene in the appointment of the right person for the position of CoA chairperson:
1. For ten years, the policy of the CoA had been in complete disarray. At no other time in the history of CoA had the leadership of CoA, or the standing of the audit institution been placed in such an embarrassing and difficult situation, so tainted with the perception of incompetence, bias, and partiality as it had been during that period.
2. At least P2 trillion was lost because of huge malfeasance in financial transactions characterized, for example as fully established by the Highest Court of the Land, the failure of CoA to audit P144 billion DAP money that was allowed to pass despite its unconstitutionality, under the Doctrine of Operative Fact. How can CoA audit when it was part of the anomaly?
3. The Commission proper from 2011 to 2021 has left huge backlogs of unacted and unresolved cases under appeal coming from all regions of the country.
Given the foregoing situation, since it has become quite evident that God in His Omnipotent Goodness is already intervening, pleas are coming from many sides: one is from the side of the Filipino people led by the 31-M die-hards, who are fervently praying that President Marcos Jr. is guided by the Holy Spirit in choosing the next chairman of CoA.
(To be continued.)