No COA report on GMA's frequent trips - Nograles

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Prospero Nograles said yesterday there is no Commission on Audit (COA) report on President Arroyo’s frequent foreign trips as revealed by Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III last Friday.

“There was never any such report. I have not received any such report and I think the same is true with other members of the House,” he said.

He admitted though that COA Assistant Commissioner Carmela Perez briefed a small group of congressmen on some special funds in the national budget last Aug. 12.

He said Guingona sat in the briefing, though it was supposed to be only for “select House leaders.”

Perez’s presentation “did not specify anything about the President’s travels, although it included the issue on allotments that exceeded appropriations for some special purpose funds, of which the contingent fund was one of the items,” Nograles said.

He added that Guingona might “have exaggerated” in claiming there was a COA report on Mrs. Arroyo’s foreign trips.

In a radio interview and later in talks with reporters last Friday, Guingona showed a document that he said was a COA report submitted to the House through Nograles on Aug. 12.

Quoting from the document, he said Mrs. Arroyo spent a total of P2.7 billion on foreign trips between 2003 and 2007, when the annual budget laws authorized her to spend only P1.1 billion.

In other words, the President overspent by P1.6 billion, he stressed.

The Bukidnon congressman cited 2008 as an example.

Again, quoting from the document, he said Mrs. Arroyo had only about P244 million in the budget for travel.

But she spent more than P700 million, augmenting her travel allocation with money from the P800-million contingent fund, which is supposed to be used principally for calamities, he said.

He pointed out that as a result, the contingent fund was used up and had to be augmented with P120 million taken from other appropriations.

Nograles said the P2.7-billion figure cited by Guingona might “have included all agencies under the Office of the President.”

“This is very different from attributing all of the travel expenses to the President herself. Over three dozen agencies report to the Office of the President, which also require foreign travels in the course of their work,” he said.

Nograles led a 28-member House delegation that accompanied Mrs. Arroyo in her latest trip to the United States two weeks ago.

The delegation included five newly proclaimed party-list representatives who have barely warmed their seats. One of them, Rodante Marcoleta of Alagad, left with the presidential entourage on his first working day.

Two other members, Martin Romualdez of Leyte and Danilo Suarez of Quezon, reportedly paid a total of $35,000 for two expensive dinners the President’s party enjoyed in New York City and Washington.