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After questioning the Commission on Audit (COA) reports against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has now recognizes the state auditors mandate under the law, saying his objection to the annual reports are not personal.

“I know that you have to do it. Kailangan gawin ninyo utos ng batas. Wala akong…at tsaka ‘di personal ‘yan. ‘Di tayo magkakakilala,” Duterte said in a taped public address Saturday morning.

However, he lamented that the audit reports have repercussions to the government agencies considering the current political climate in the country.

“Pero ang mga repercussion lang, gusto man o hindi, gusto ko rin o hindi, ay [mangyayari] kapag ganitong Philippine environment ng ating bansa, politika at mga tao na— well there is a freedom to criticize whatever but kailangan malaman ng Pilipino na ano talaga ang totoo,” the president said.

In the same public address, Duterte said he won’t fire Secretary Duque “even if it will bring me down”, after the latter faced questions from COA on the use of P67-billion COVID-19 funds.

Duterte said he would be “doing a great injustice” if he fired Duque because the latter would be dogged by insinuations of corruption for all his “lifetime.”

“Maski mag-isa na lang ako, I will stand for Duque, even if it will bring me down,” the President said.

“Sabi na pagkatapos nito, hindi na popular si Duterte, ‘yong mga rating-rating niya. Look, tapos na ako, the rating does not really matter to me. Gusto ko lang magtrabaho nang matino, and whatever judgement you have for me, I don’t give a s***.”

The president also made mention of executive order (EO) on transparency, apparently referring to his 2016 order for Freedom of Information (FOI) in the Executive Department.

“It is open. Sabihin niyo lang gusto niyo, I will give the order to open whatever. There is ating transparency law, transparency executive order,” he said.

“Wala pa ‘yung batas. Mayrooon ako EO but Congress has yet to act on itong batas making it transparent, everything that the public may want to know,” he said.

Earlier, Duterte slammed COA after the DOH drew flak over the “deficiencies” on the use of multi-billion-peso allocation for COVID-19 response in 2020.