(The Manila Times) PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has accused former Interior secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas 2nd and former Justice secretary and now Sen. Leila de Lima of stealing public funds, citing the Commission on Audit’s (CoA) previous findings that flagged millions to billions of supposedly unliquidated funds.

In his prerecorded public address, Duterte said CoA, in its past audit findings, had also flagged the Department of Justice (DoJ) then under de Lima for its unliquidated cash advances in 2013.

“Mayroon dito ha (There’s this) agency, DoJ, under [then] secretary Leila de Lima, unliquidated (P617.44) million worth of cash advance in the year 2013,” Duterte said.

“Nakulong na lang ang g***, hindi niya ma-account itong ano. Tapos sabi nila, nag-press release na na-liquidate na raw (That stupid is now detained and could not account for this [CoA report]. She just issued a press release saying it was already liquidated),” he added.

Duterte also mentioned the past CoA report on the unliquidated fund transfers in the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) led then by Roxas.

He said the fund transfers accumulated a huge amount of P7.04 billion because of failure to monitor the liquidation and submission of financial reports.

“[The] DILG unliquidated P7 billion worth of fund transfers to various projects implemented under the term of former DILG secretary Mar Roxas as of Dec. 31, 2014,” he added.

Duterte compared this to the P67-billion “deficiencies” uncovered by CoA on the Department of Health’s management of Covid-19 funds in 2020, saying that the DoH used the funds to buy medical supplies and personal protective equipment, whereas the money was taken in cash during Roxas’ time.

“Ito unliquidated cash advances. Ito perang kinuha talaga. Eh itong kay Duque magbili eh, ito nag-cash advance, nag-bale (These are unliquidated cash advances. This is really stolen money. Duque made cash advances for purchases),” he said.

The President also slammed de Lima for criticizing his administration without taking into consideration her questionable cash advances during her stint at DoJ.

On Monday, de Lima said Duterte was “corrupting” CoA when he asked the agency to “reconfigure” its audit reports by stating that flagged agencies are not involved in corruption.

Duterte then turned the tables on de Lima, telling her to respond to CoA’s previous findings on DoJ.

“Ngayon si de Lima maingay. Sige nga, mag-ingay ka nga ngayon (Now de Lima is making noise. Go ahead, make noise),” he said.

“Mabuti nang malaman ng Pilipino kung sino ‘yung magnanakaw (Filipinos should know who’s the thief),” the President added.

Back in 2013, the CoA said DILG had P7.040-billion unliquidated fund transfers, which were supposedly used for various projects.

Roxas, who served as DILG secretary from 2012 to 2015, also faced corruption allegations in relation to the rehabilitation projects in areas devastated by Typhoon “Yolanda” in 2013.

Roxas’s camp then explained that the funds were unliquidated as the projects were still being implemented.