Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Gutsy COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza accepts watchdog post in the United Nations

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By Raïssa Robles

Congratulations to Ms. Mendoza for this well-deserved post.

The government official whom the bicameral Commission on Appointments had long refused to confirm as a COA Commissioner was snatched up by the United Nations to perform the same function, but on a global scale.

There are nagging questions that need to be asked, though.

What will now happen to Mendoza’s testimony before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan over the alleged rigged bidding of a P72 million furniture purchase by the Vice-President’s wife Elenita Binay while she was still mayor of Makati City? Has Mendoza finished testifying? Can she be available for a cross-examination, if necessary?

In her testimony, Mendoza told the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division that the bidding for the P72-million furniture purchased, when Mrs. Binay was still Makati City mayor, was rigged.

Mendoza also testified at a Senate probe over the alleged overpriced infrastructure projects in Makati. Can she also still testify on the matter if and when this reaches the court?

I hope that after Mendoza finishes her stint at the UN, she will return to Manila and take up what the late accountant Nimfa Arroyo once tried to do, that is – to audit the accounting profession. A lot of crimes in the country today are thanks to auditors who find ways for clients to make the wrong things look right and legal.

Here below is Ms. Mendoza’s statement of acceptance, sent to me by the Commission on Audit:

Statement of COA Commissioner Mendoza on her appointment as head of the United Nations Internal Oversight Services

I sincerely thank United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for recognizing the humble contribution of a Philippine public servant in the area of combating corruption and espousing good governance. Likewise, I am thankful to the different member states and the General Assembly for their vote of confidence.

With the prayers of those whom I have served and a heart full of gratitude to the people that I have served for the past twenty-five years, I am taking the challenge of heading the Office of Internal Oversight Services of the United Nations.

I am thankful to the President for taking the difficult task of leading a country wanting of reforms and yet oftentimes cynical of the sincerity and contributions of people in government.

My gratitude to all our development partners, the vigilant civil society organizations, the academe and business community and the guardians of my faith, who have all rallied with me in 2011 as I took on the painful task of truth telling and confronting the inner and external threats to the only office that I have loved and served with unceasing commitment and dedication.

To my fellow servants of the Philippine government, to the leaders and ordinary employees of the Commission on Audit, I am more than grateful.

With the guidance of the Almighty, the blessings of the mentors of my faith, the confidence and trust in the indomitable spirit of the Filipinos, I promise to serve the global community with selfless dedication and commitment to uphold the mandate of the office and the United Nations.

Comments

  1. Last Monday night oct 12 sa chanel 7 “Bawal ang Pasaway” kay Mareng Winnie Monsod, si COA commissioner Heide Mendoza ang guest.
    Ipinangako ni Ma’m Heide na tatakbo siya sa pagka senadora sa next election year 2022 kasi tapos na ang 5 years na kontata niya sa UN.
    Sa fb ng liberal party, nag post sila ng 4 senatorial candidates, and they were asking who do the readers raw would like to suggest as senatorial candidates to have in their 12 slate aside from the first four.
    I suggested the name of Ma’m Heide Mendoza aside from the others whom i feel should be senators to add integrity to the senate body.
    i did not know then that Ma’m Heide was being considered nor accepted the UN invitation. Anyway, it’s good for her, but, our country’s loss.

    Thank you Ma’m Heide.
    I will look forward next election year 2022 hoping that you bring consistency, integrity to the senate.

  4. Beautiful people please help! Can anybody here name the members of that CA. And who appointed them & when?

  5. It takes people from the outside to see and appreciate the “gold” that we have. Shame on the earlier decisions of the Commission on Appointments. Congratulations Heidi Mendoza!

  6. Congratulations Heide!

    You are a worthy Filipina for our country Filipinas.

    God bless you always. Thanks. Leona.

  7. congratulations Idol Heidi Mendoza!
    your appointment is a smack on the faces of those who blocked your confirmation in bir.
    this also showed that those opposed to your post are noticedd by the UN watchdog.
    good luck to your new venture!

  8. Women power, from COA Chair, Grace Pulido Tan to Chief Justice Sereno, then Ombudsman Carpio-Morales and other women in the bureaucracy to Heidi Mendoza. The UN recognizes what women from the Philippine can do.

    • I agree. Imagine if these respected women including Sec Leila De Lima will be given more power and authority to imposed their rulings and judgement! They reminded me of my teacher in Grade one in 1972, VERY strict! That’s why we grew-up following every rules and regulations and even simple government law. Our society really needs those strict guidance but not Martial Rules! Mabuhay sa Lahat nang Faithful and Strict Working Mothers!

  9. Raissa,
    I intend to continue appearing before Sandiganbayan as a government witness as long as I will receive the subpoena on time and hoping I will have the resources to get by. I was informed also that oral deposition could also be possible. Thanks to you and your blog, I hope you will give the same support to my team whom I am leaving behind by Nov 16.

    • Congratulations! Their gain, our loss. Please come back after your term, the nation needs you.

      • The country , IMO, has a propensity to drive away all those smart , helpful and most of all conscientious workers and personalities including the OFWS who are mostly healthcare, teachers and high tech. people because of a feeling of doom and gloom in the country and the behavior of the elected leaders, as if they don’t have an internal agenda to make the lives of each and everyone changed for the better but for themselves. They just have a goal for only the time frame of their tenure until someone else comes along , and re-start another temporary short term programs to be able to steal funds and over and over again. But guess who are those leaders, same families, same criminal minds and same ” tayo tayo ” mentality.

        Such trend will cause a negative effect in the country in the next few years to come , when the population aged that would need tremendous workforce especially in an aging population. We could not sense the huge impact yet , because overseas workers are still young and motivated.
        The country of 110 million, has this recent study and it is not good. Where health is said to be the wealth of a society this report is not comforting for the mostly poor pinoys and more-so worrisome for those living abroad who would wish to return and retire in the country as an option.

        http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/lifestyle/10/06/15/ph-world-bottom-5-palliative-care

    • @Heidi Mendoza

      Congratulations and best regards!!

      I know that when you come back after your stint at the UN, the country will be much willing to get you again on the service. The country needs people like you.

    • It boggles the mind though to some serious concern to do with mostly why has the UN bypassed on the 1968 Jabidah massacre incident that technically was conspiratorial.

      (one) Marcos had Indonesian generals to help him alongside his own Filipino generals secretly annex Sabah. Malaysia, by military means.

      (two) Marcos had his cronies (the oligarchy of his control) and a smuggling magnet in Cavite province recruit Muslim Tausug youth to act as the vanguard army sabotage civilian and military infrastructure in Malaysia.

      (three) Marcos ordered this boys massacred as one survivor’s testimony says they were lined up by their superiors and then shot.

      All three violated Philippine and international laws as well as the UN humanitarian laws for the mass killings of Muslim army trainees in March, 1968.

      Can we ask an audit of the UN regarding this issues why UN chose to ignore?

        • I would imagine how tricky this issue could be for our Commissioner asking such discomforting questions while yet new with the job. But it just somehow tickle the imagination, one because UN had they stumped on their mandate in 1968, just imagine the lives that could have been saved and the money, wow so much, right Raissa?

          I asked this because we have millions of people of our culture fleeing wars the UN seemed so helpless with, I can’t imagine how on earth can one contain, grapple with terrorism with so much pool of people in millions ripe for picking. And yet still, we couldn’t just get it, hence the killing of the BBL in congress.

          We have had very similar problem yet in the 70s, Filipinos fleeing wars because of war criminals in gov’t created now to number more than a million.

          Well, in case the Commissioner might want to know why we have Muslim radicals, Abu Sayaff, ISIS etc. it is because our UN and our gov’t no less, couldn’t bode well either just like the majority of us Muslims.

          But may I ask why can’t I ask anymore?

        • The ICC will only entertain cases starting when a country signs the agreement recognizing the ICC. In our case we only recently signed, so all cases including those of the Marcoses cannot be brought before this court. That’s what the ICC spokesman told me last June when I asked him.

        • Can Nazi war criminals hide in the US and be free of ICC war crime offense just as you say since the US chose not to be ICC member?

          What if I invoke rights under the 1899 Bates Treaty and sue in an American court, can I seek prosecution of war criminals responsible for atrocities in Mindanao then?

          I know this issues to be a bit mundane, I know too not many can understand this Raissa, but I still feel there should be some measure of responsibility explain why people in Mindanao have to go through a senseless war and be impeded by inconsistencies, responsibilities we as knowing people who knows not doing anything can put matters to worsen scenarios in the future.

          Thanks Raissa.

        • the spokesman was only talking of ICC jurisdiction. Not anything else.

          but you could try suing in a US court against the atrocities of Americans in Mindanao. Or for that matter in Samar. Hmmmm.

        • I think that effort to cite past collaboration with alien entities is merely along sovereignty issues. That we as Moro people are a recognized entity and the evidence of course would be agreements our forefathers signed with alien entities.

          Also, going far deeper away from the Marcos issues to sue in a war crime court surely would have basis. And this is along thoughts we as people are sovereigns therefore we can demand for our rights under international law since justice in the Philippines may not be easy to attain.

          The Marcos crimes is not even a Muslim problem, through a war crime court though, we can prove issue to be downright ‘Filipino’.

        • Should it ever come to naught that from your suggestions, I include in my radar questions of intramural with America, outside of the issue of the US Expeditionary (military) Campaign in 1902-3, commencing with the Moro-American War, I can question the act of war itself as having violated the US Constitution because the people of Lanao is neither an enemy of the United States or was it ever a Spanish territory.

          That said, the Tydings-McDuffie Act of the US Senate may have also violated US laws for failing to consult with the Moro Mohammedan people being party to the 1899 Bates Treaty.

          Outside of the 1899 treaty agreement, would be the 1933-34 Montevideo protocol and the Stimson Doctrine which was adopted and made parcel to US and UN laws among others.

          All of which and also to mention of the valedictory address of US Cong Robert Bacon in May 6, 1926 extolling the need to recognize the Moro people as distinct and separate from all the rest of the Philippines during the Commonwealth would be another manifestation indeed we as people have rights and we can seek the US high courts for judicial review?

          But all of this would be to veer away far from the issue of the Marcos atrocities, right Raissa?

        • So Raissa, are you also suggesting that outside the UN audit, that we also include the US?

          I don’t think Heide’s mandate can cover. Can it?

        • How can you even say that the Marcos crime is not a Muslim problem when he committed genocide against your people?

        • As a Filipino and a Muslim, I see this two ways; one as a citizen proof of which is by warrant of our constitutional laws making me one and violated in the 1968 incident. Marcos as leader of gov’t violated our laws, by engaging unlawful acts of war, scheming secret invasion of Sabah, Malaysia, trampling on international law.

          The massacre of Muslim army trainees however violated me as a Muslim, had gotten a lot of us Muslims in absolute raging to trigger the warrior instincts in us. prompted war that still is raging up till now.

          I personally want peaceful resolution to these infractions by a Filipino gov’t and i can only do this through a war crime court, will I call this a ‘Muslim’ problem?

          No it is not. Reason why describing carnage as Filipino is primarily because it is my constitutional rights that is violated in the continuing war and the trigger to war, the 1968 Jabidah incident, does not constitute to be a Muslim problem.

        • The YES and NO part. So intriguing…Forty seven years of unremitting war and it’s yes and no. I am wowed…Raissa?

  10. Congrats Ms. Heide Mendoza! Your appointment to the UN as permanent auditor is a slap on the faces of some members of the Commission on Appointment who delayed and tried to stop you from being confirmed as one of the heads of COA.

    • My sentiments exactly Pelang.

      I might just add that it shouldn’t be too long before the same senators and congressmen and women who stood in her way before will now be singing her high praises and sending her their very best wishes. Mga hunghang!