MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte slammed former Commission on Audit (COA) commissioner Heidi Mendoza for defending the agency against his threat that its auditor in Ilocos Norte must be pushed down the stairs.

Duterte, in a speech on Wednesday, September 19, in front of barangay officials, said Mendoza is not capable of “lecturing” him.

“Hindi niya ako malecturan (She can’t lecture me) because I was ahead of her by a mile diyan sa understanding ‘yung nitty-gritty (in understanding the nitty-gritty),” said the President in Malacañang.

After working many years in the field of audit, Mendoza served as COA commissioner starting in 2011 until 2015 when she was picked by then-United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to be undersecretary general of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services.

Duterte said he was not “criticizing” COA, but only defending those low-ranking government officials who face cases because their superiors violated COA circulars. He expressed incredulity that these personnel must go to jail because of such circulars.

“‘Pag sinabi ng mayor pirmahan mo ‘yan, pipirmahan ‘yan ng treasurer, but when the bomb ticks off, ‘yung mga mayor, gobernador wala na (When the mayor says to sign, the treasurer will just sign, but when the bomb ticks off, the mayor, governor disappear from the picture),” said Duterte.

“You convict a person by a circular, not even by a law? A circular, what is its dimension? Has it reached the level of both the national and the local?” continued the President.

It’s not clear why Duterte was blaming COA for these situations, instead of the mayors and governors who ordered their subordinates to sign off on transactions later on flagged by the commission.

He, however, made no mention of his threat to push the Ilocos Norte COA auditor down the stairs, the remark which Mendoza had reacted to days before.

“Sino’ng taga-COA dito? Ihulog mo na sa hagdan para ‘di mag-report (Who’s from COA? Push him down the stairs so he won’t be able to file a report anymore),” said Duterte on Sunday, September 16, during a meeting with his Cabinet and Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos in Laoag City.

He had also claimed COA “has not contributed to national development” and told public officials to ignore or defy its rules.

Two days after, Mendoza took to Facebook to say COA and its personnel must be respected. 

“Give us respect for we deserve it,” she had said.

Mendoza, who served COA for two decades, pointed out that COA was created by the 1987 Constitution itself and that Duterte is the only Philippine president to tell government officials to defy its rules.

Mendoza advised the public to read the Disaster Audit Guide to know how COA can adjust certain rules to respond to crisis situations.

COA was created to scrutinize how government entities spend public money, to ensure transparency and prevent corruption. Under the Duterte presidency, the commission crafted reports that identified instances of abuse of public funds, extravagant spending, and delays in project implementation. – Rappler.com