Shots fired at COA office

MANILA, Philippines - Shots were fired yesterday morning and shattered the windows in two offices at the Commission on Audit (COA) in Quezon City.

Quezon City Police District director Chief Superintendent Richard Albano said no one was injured in the shooting incident that occurred shortly after 7 a.m. at the COA building along Commonwealth Avenue.

Amid audit reports by the agency implicating several senators and congressmen in the misuse of pork barrel funds, COA Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan released a statement saying the agency would not be threatened by violence.

Tan assured the people yesterday that the agency will not be cowed by those who might be trying to stop the agency from doing its job of making sure that public money is being spent properly.

“The reported shooting incident in the COA premises this morning is currently under investigation by the police. We do not wish to preempt the investigation, so let us wait for the results,” she said.

She said COA auditors would not be silenced or deterred from discharging their constitutional duty.

“We owe this to God and the Filipino people. Please pray for the safety of every man and woman in the commission, and for continued courage and integrity,” she said.

The COA released recently a special audit report that showed several lawmakers were involved in the alleged pork barrel scam perpetrated by businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles of the JLN Group of Companies.

The lawmakers reportedly allowed their pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to be used by bogus nongovernment organizations (NGOs) of Napoles that diverted the funds for alleged ghost projects.

Tan said the police are still investigating the incident, but initial findings made police believe that stray bullets hit the building and were not intended for anyone at the agency.

Albano said the windows at the COA could have been hit by stray bullets that shattered a window at the office of Director Nilda Plaras on the second floor of the building, while another window was damaged at the office of the COA’s National Government Sector located on the third floor.

He said a janitor recovered a slug at the office of Plaras just before office hours started at 8 a.m. and another slug was later found at the third floor office.

Investigators believe the slugs came from bullets of a cal.38 revolver.

“The shooting incident was believed to have occurred before office hours,” Albano said.

Witnesses claimed to have seen one of two motorcycle-riding men fire shots along Commonwealth Avenue at the lane across the COA building. The motorcycle was reportedly heading towards Quezon Memorial Circle.

Albano said witnesses have reported that four shots were fired.

“One of them saw two men on a motorcycle going after a walking (human) target on the road on the other side of Commonwealth Avenue,” Albano said.

After the first two shots aimed at the target were fired, two more were fired, which were believed to have been the ones that hit the windows of the COA building, said Inspector Elmer Monsalve.

Albano met with COA Commissioner Rowena Guanzon following the incident and told her of their initial findings.

“If this (COA) was the target, it would have been strafed and more shots would have been fired,” Albano told Guanzon.

He said the suspects would have used a rifle if they meant to strafe the COA building.

Albano also pointed to a small bullet crater on the road gutter on the other side of Commonwealth Avenue where the gunman was believed to have fired the shots.  – With Michael Punongbayan, Delon Porcalla