Former Commission on Audit chairperson Ma. Gracia Pulido Tan and Commissioner Heidi L. Mendoza worked in tandem but their ill-fated partnership was marred by their mishandling of the audit of lawmakers’ pork barrel, which turned into a global disaster.
The dysfunctional CoA turned Noynoy’s straight path into a crooked one, losing total control which led to the holocaust in Philippine fiscal administration under the triumvirate of Florencio Abad, Pulido Tan, and Mendoza.
The appointees of then-president Aquino in CoA were the obstacles to the ability of President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill his promises and meet the high public expectations.
In one instance, he ordered the CoA chairman to audit the accounts of the Philippine National Red Cross, given the President’s controversy with Senator Gordon. The CoA chief rebuffed the President, saying the CoA had no jurisdiction over the PNRC.
That was indeed a rebuff and a disrespect because it was incredible that a 7th placer in the Bar did not know her constitutional power to audit. But when the President directed the Solicitor General to take action and make CoA audit the Red Cross, the CoA chief blinked and said CoA would conduct an audit “next week.” Such was the naughtiness of President Noynoy’s appointees to constitutional offices.
President Digong appointed the former chief accountant of Davao as CoA chief in 2022. Digong’s decision had a lot of logic and common sense. First, it would remove hindrances to the fulfillment of his promises to the people.
Then Chairperson Rizalina Justol was greeted warmly by the CoA officials and staff. “I am glad to be back at CoA, an institution that I had served for 10 years as an auditing examiner,” Chairperson Justol said. She chose 1 March as the date of her assumption as chairperson, it being a significant date as it was when she left the Commission in 1996.
Justol, however, was not confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, and her term was overtaken by the assumption into office of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
President Marcos then appointed National Telecommunications Commissioner Gamaliel A. Cordoba as CoA. He took his oath of office before Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Alexander Gesmundo.
Cordoba obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1992. He entered the Ateneo School of Law and obtained his law degree in 1996. He passed the Bar in 1997.
Atty. Cordoba was supposed to enjoy life with his appointment to the exalted post of chairman of the Commission, not far down the line of succession from the Head of State, but his life has been complicated by the backlog of more than 6,000 cases left behind by the former Commission Proper who wasted their official time on too much foreign travel, on the unconstitutional citizen participatory audit, and simply with their lack of direction.
Cordoba was conferred the Order of the Rising Sun by Japan as a rising star of the Philippines.
(To be continued)