Jinggoy: COA chief used 'common friend' to get CA nod

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Jinggoy Estrada on Thursday revealed that Commission on Audit (COA) Chairperson Grace Pulido Tan sought the help of a "common friend" to get the confirmation of the Commission on Appointments (CA).

“She even asked support from a common friend so that she gets her confirmation at the CA easily… Loko 'yan (She’s bad), she even pleaded for support,” Estrada said in Filipino.

Estrada made the statement in retaliation to Tan's revelation that the senator asked her last July and recommended that she assign specific auditors to the city government of Manila.

The call was made after the senator's father, former President Joseph Estrada, was elected mayor of Manila.

Estrada admitted that he made the request.

Related story: COA chief lashes back at Jinggoy

“I am not keeping that secret. But why impute malicious intent? On recommendation of the City Administrator (of Manila), I mentioned names of two auditors. But then she did not heed on my request,”  Estrada said.

Estrada explained that he sought for the appointment of the two special auditors because he wanted to look deeper into the COA findings that the city government was "deep in debt" during the term of former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

“Humingi ako ng special auditors to audit bakit lugmok sa utang ang Manila. It was city administrator Simeon Garcia who requested for special auditors to aid the city government in determining why Manila went bankrupt,” Estrada said,

Garcia was the senator's chief of staff.

Immature

The senator labeled Tan's revelation as "immature" and urged her to "just stick to the issue and explain..."

During Monday's deliberation of the proposed COA budget for 2014, Estrada grilled the chief auditor over the agency's use of the P143-million funds sourced from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Tan explained that the funds were used for the upgrading of equipment, hiring of consultants and the procurement of service vehicles.

The senator denied that he was just trying to harass Tan over the pork barrel scam.

“Why will I harass her now when I am already facing charges [before the Ombudsman]… She just got hurt because she was forced to admit that she got DAP and used it to buy vehicles of her commissioners and pay consultants,” Estrada said.

Estrada, along with fellow senators Bong Revilla Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile, have been charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman over the P10-million pork barrel scam.

Abad: Not from DAP

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, meanwhile, clarified that the P143-million in additional funds received by the COA were not sourced from the DAP.

Interviewed at the Senate where he defended the need for the supplemental budget to address the rehabilitation of disaster-stricken areas, Abad explained that the funds for COA’s computerization were sourced from the E-government fund.

Abad added that the payment for additional consultants and litigators came from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF).

Despite Tan ‘s admission during the Senate budget hearing, Abad maintained that the vehicles procured by the agency for Commissioner Heidi Mendoza and two other executives came from the COA’s savings, not from the DAP.

“You can check again. I checked with her [and] I told her we did not give you money for cars, we only gave you money for computers and litigators,” Abad said.

“There is no [DAP] used in buying the cars, the fund was used for litigators and computers,” Abad reiterated.