Palace working on guidelines to address COA finding on unused donations

October 9, 2020

Malacanang on Friday said the Office of the President is  working on the guidelines and studying the Commission on Audit’s finding on unused donations.

“As per the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Office of the President is already working on the guidelines and studying how to best address the findings of the Commission on Audit (COA), which include how donations will be effectively and efficiently utilized,” Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

In a report published on Thursday, COA said a total of P1, 412,943,850.69 donations intended for economic development projects in line with the national priority plan, such as agrarian reform, assistance to victims and areas affected by natural calamities and rehabilitation of depressed areas, were not formulated.

“Hence, benefits that could have been derived therefrom were not attained,” it said.

According to reports, COA said the P1.4 billion donation came from Benpres Corporation which is now Lopez Holdings Corp., a flagship company of the Lopez family which comprises Rockwell Land Corp., ABS-CBN Corp., among other businesses.

For 2019, President Rodrigo Duterte’s office has a P8.201-billion budget. Ella Dionisio/DMS