THE Philippine Red Cross (PRC) on Sunday maintained that as “recipient” of some donations from agencies of the Philippine government, they have “faithfully accounted” for the use of such funds in compliance with the donor agencies’ liquidation and reportorial requirements.
“These government agencies, in turn, are subject to annual audit by the Commission on Audit,” the PRC said in a statement, issued a day after President Duterte threatened to scrutinize the financial records of the humanitarian organization, through the Commission on Audit (COA), with respect to those funds coming from state agencies.
Duterte on Saturday stepped up his attacks against senators probing Covid fund mismanagement, and hurled a challenge to them: you scrutinize the Executive, I scrutinize you, as he singled out for attack Sen. Richard J. Gordon, Blue Ribbon committee head and concurrent PRC chairman.
Gordon had said, after previous personal attacks on him by Duterte, that senators would not be fazed by the Chief Executive’s tirades.
However, Gordon added, it was the height of arrogance for Duterte to attack the PRC as well, and netizens have warned that any attempt to crimp the humanitarian organization would backfire on the government and the people.
The PRC had been at the frontlines early on the in pandemic in 2020, with most government agencies and local government units relying on it to help set up Covid testing centers.
To date, the PRC said that there has not been any adverse finding on any transaction whereby government funds were given to the PRC.
“Reports of these donations may be obtained by the Office of the President directly from these government agencies, and audits on these government agencies, if any, may be secured from the Commission on Audit,” the PRC stressed.
Earlier, Duterte attacked Gordon for the PRC’s alleged failure to comply with its mandate of regularly submitting PRC’s financial reports to the Executive department.
Duterte demanded that the PRC submit its financial records so it could be scrutinized by state auditors.
However, the COA had earlier said auditing the Red Cross was not part of its mandate.