Duterte demands audit of Philippine Red Cross
President Rodrigo Duterte demanded an audit be done against the Philippines Red Cross (PRC) after he accused its chairman Senator Richard Gordon for using the organization as a "milking cow" to fund his election campaign.
"I will demand, the executive department will demand that we furnish copies of your audit taken by Commission on Audit (COA), and COA to give us the copy so that we can review also what you have audited, we will check if it is right or not," Duterte said during the taped Talk to The People on Thursday night.
Duterte also encouraged Gordon to be transparent to the public as he expressed belief that Gordon is also guilty of something.
"It is much better. Let us be open to everybody. You open your books and I open mine. And you can read all what is entered there, and I also examine what you have done so that it will be a fair scheme for everybody," he said.
"If there is an honest-to-goodness examination of the book of records and the audit of the past years and we will review if it reflected really the real actuations of you and the others there in the Red Cross, I'm sure that we will find something and we believe that you are also guilty of --- well, let say malversation. Well, tell us. We would be glad --- we would be happy to know," he added.
Duterte accused Gordon of allegedly controlling the PRC for his political interest.
He also mentioned that the PRC under the leadership of Gordon has allegedly violated the "Expanded Senior Citizens Act" which grants additional benefits and privileges to senior citizens. Robina Asido/DMS