Jose Calida is Marcos’ COA chair

From justice undersecretary beneath Gloria Arroyo to solicitor normal beneath Rodrigo Duterte, Calida will once more transfer to a brand new turf, this time beneath the Marcos administration

MANILA, Philippines – Outgoing solicitor normal Jose Calida would be the chairperson of the Fee on Audit (COA) beneath the incoming authorities of president-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“Legal professional Jose Calida for COA chair – as you already know he’s the previous solicitor normal beneath President Duterte, he’s additionally the previous undersecretary of justice and previously additionally of the Harmful Medication Board,” incoming press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles mentioned in a information convention Wednesday, June 29.

Angeles took only some questions, and others who wished to expound on the appointment of Calida didn’t have an opportunity to take action.

Angeles asks “no different questions?” so I took the mic and started to say, “Atty Trixie…” to ask my query however she walked out of the rostrum then. I wished to ask concerning the {qualifications} of Calida as COA chair given OSG and COA’s dispute re excessive allowances. pic.twitter.com/T8Ngfawijf

— Lian Buan (@lianbuan) June 29, 2022

For years, rumors didn’t die down that Calida had eyed changing into Ombudsman, however he didn’t apply for the publish in 2018, and Duterte appointed former Supreme Courtroom justice Samuel Martires for a hard and fast time period of seven years.

Calida was President Rodrigo Duterte’s shut modern within the authorized circle in Davao Metropolis the place they each hail from. Within the 2016 elections, Calida campaigned for the so-called “AlDuB” tandem or Alyansang Duterte at Bongbong. Calida is a loyalist of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, father of the incoming president.

The OSG beneath Calida went after perceived critics of the Duterte authorities, together with jailing Senator Leila de Lima, trying to jail Antonio Trillanes IV, and looking for to close down Rappler and ABS-CBN.

Below Calida, the Workplace of the Solicitor Basic (OSG) was flagged by the COA for prime allowances for attorneys, together with himself. COA had all the time insisted that OSG employees or officers can’t obtain allowances from client-agencies greater than half of their fundamental wage.

However Calida, in his time period, was capable of get allowances that quadrupled his fundamental wage and catapulted him because the second highest paid authorities official – a spot no different solicitor normal held earlier than. By the top of his time period, Calida doubled his web price from P36.9 million in 2017 to P73.4 million in 2021, in accordance with Statements of Belongings, Liabilities and Web Value (SALNs) obtained by Rappler.

Calida was additionally put beneath scrutiny for his family-owned safety agency Vigilant, which cornered a whole bunch of thousands and thousands price of presidency contracts whereas he was Duterte’s solicitor normal. After an aborted Senate investigation and a grievance earlier than the Workplace of the Ombudsman, Calida and household divested from the agency and offered their shares to Dominic Edgard Angeles Cabangon (60% shares) and Benjamin del Villar Ramos (39.998% shares), executives of CNN Philippines.

COA, a constitutional fee, is a silent employee within the paperwork however had been instrumental in exposing corruption throughout presidencies, such because the army “pabaon” scandal throughout Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration, and the pork barrel rip-off that the Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III administration pursued.

Below the Duterte authorities, COA’s annual audit experiences sparked the extreme investigation into the pandemic procurements, significantly the Pharmally Pharmaceutical Company – an organization backed by Duterte’s former financial adviser and which bagged P11 billion price of pandemic contracts.

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– MR