New COA chief to serve for 4 years

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang explained yesterday that newly appointed Commission on Audit (COA) chair Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan would serve only four years or until Feb. 2, 2015 and not seven years because she would only serve the remaining years of the term of her predecessor Reynaldo Villar.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, however, clarified that this does not mean that Villar’s term should have expired in 2015.

Villar had filed his resignation effective upon the appointment of his successor.

The former COA chair denied clinging to his post although he had argued that his term would expire in 2015.

Villar said that when he was named COA chair in 2008, his appointment papers stated that his term expires on Feb. 2, 2011 but then Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita issued a clarification letter that his term would expire in 2015.

Once his appointment was questioned, Villar said he submitted his defense to the Supreme Court.

Villar said he could not just leave COA without a replacement because the constitutional body is a collegial body that needs at least two members to function.

Valte said Villar had already served a seven-year term, initially COA as commissioner and later as chairman, and he could no longer be re-appointed to serve as chairman for another full seven-year term.

She said then COA chairman Guillermo Carague served for seven years that ended in 2008.

“Prior to that, Chairman Villar was already commissioner of the Commission on Audit. The Constitution expressly prohibits any re-appointment within the commission. Since he had already served for four years as a commissioner, he couldn’t be given a fresh seven-year term, such that he was only given the three (years) because had he been given a full seven years, that would have violated the prohibition on reappointments,” Valte said. – With Jess Diaz