In January 2019, Duterte said CoA, an independent constitutional body in charge of scrutinizing expenditures of all government agencies, "always makes things difficult." In September 2018, Duterte dismissed CoA's powers and ridiculed its regulations as mere "shit of a circular." Several times in the past, Duterte refused to heed calls to fire Duque from his Cabinet, vouching for the health chief's integrity and competence. With CoA's audit report on DoH spending for 2020, which was released last week, is Duterte changing his tune on Duque? Basically, CoA's audit findings did not explicitly say the P67.32 billion landed in the pockets of officials.

Source: Manila Times August 15, 2021 15:11 UTC