Why a non-auditor for the Commission on Audit? Retired (effective today) Solicitor General Jose Calida, who became controversial many times over, was appointed to COA by newly-sworn President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Upon reading the papers about the appointment by newly- sworn President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of Solicitor General Jose Calida (who retires as SolGen today) to the Commission on Audit, I instantly felt an unexplainable unease. Which is why I posed this headline question.
How sure are we that the results of audit of government agencies that his group will reach are truthful, factual and impartial?
How sure are we that he would not use the office to justify his family-owned security agency from getting fat contracts with government agencies, and protecting via audit the agencies that grant his family enterprise such contracts?
In 2018, President Duterte protected him against senators who wanted him out because of conflict of interest when his security agency Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc. (which he heads) got a multi-million contract with the Department of Justice (where he was an undersecretary under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo).
However, he reportedly still owns a controlling share—60 percent—of the company. The 1987 Constitution prohibits members of the government from participating in any business and being financially interested with any contract or franchise with the government and its offices. This could also be the reason for his being the second highest paid Cabinet member.
Reports said Calida’s security firm bagged contracts worth millions of pesos with the National Economic Development Agency, National Anti-Poverty Commission, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., National Parks Development Corp. and the Department of Justice. It was also said that Vigilant had won 10 government contracts since August 2016.
As the state’s top lawyer, Calida has won controversial cases for the government before the courts including the controversial decision to bury the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the national heroes’ cemetery, the extension of martial law in Mindanao, the drug cases against Sen. Leila de Lima and the quo warranto petition that ousted former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In June 2020, Calida was accused of “meddling with Congress” when he advised the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) not to grant ABS-CBN a provisional authority that will allow the network to broadcast despite its expired franchise. He filed two quo warranto petitions before the SC involving the broadcasting operations of ABS-CBN. The cases were also petition for certiorari and prohibition against NTC.
In June 2021, or five months after getting a dressing down from SC, Calida received another judicial rebuke when the 11th division of the Court of Appeals scored his “Janus-faced” position and “mental calisthenics” over the Duterte administration’s bid to revoke the amnesty given to its fierce critic, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, and have him arrested, the Inquirer editorial said.
Calida had been at the forefront of trying to revive the criminal cases against Trillanes, who availed himself of amnesty in 2011 under Proclamation No. 75 issued by then President Benigno Aquino III for Trillanes and other participants of the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, the 2006 Marines standoff, and the 2007 Manila Pen siege.
The tough language recalls how the Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), chastised Calida in January for using his office, supposedly as the “People’s Tribune,” to intervene on behalf of defeated vice- presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr. in his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
Noting that Calida’s pleading had echoed Marcos’ petition to the letter, it advised the SolGen to “conduct a careful self-examination’’ and “exercise… discretion’’ before deploying his office for his pet personal causes: “All counsels including the Solicitor General are reminded to attend to their cases with the objectivity and dignity demanded by our profession and keep their passions and excitement in check.’’
The Philippine Star today reported that Calida (on his retirement as SolGen) will head the Commission on Audit, in charge of scrutinizing the financial reports of all government agencies.
Calida did not come from the ranks of Philippine auditors. He served as undersecretary of the Department of Justice during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2001-2004.
He has been criticized for supposedly using his capacity as state lawyer to go after perceived government critics, including former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who was ousted through the concurrence of Supreme Court justices to his petition to unseat her.
Calida is a practicing lawyer and founding partner of J. Calida & Associates law firm based in Davao del Sur. He served as secretary general of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption during the administration of President Fidel Ramos and was the convenor of the God's People's Coalition for Righteousness that staged protests and prayer rallies against the proliferation of pornography and smut films in the 1990s.
In 1997, he led the group called Support the Initiatives for the Good of the Nation or SIGN which pushed for Charter Change through people's initiative and helped the Pirma movement gather signatures to allow then President Fidel Ramos to run for reelection through a plebiscite. He also co-founded the party list group called Citizens' Battle Against Corruption and served as its president in 1997.
Calida was a member of the prosecution team during the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada in 2000. Following the Second EDSA Revolution, he was appointed by the newly installed President Gloria Arroyo as the Undersecretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Secretary Hernando B. Perez in 2001, Merceditas Gutierrez in 2002, and Simeon Datumanong in 2003.
As Justice Undersecretary, he was in charge of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, the DOJ Task Force on Corruption and Internal Security, and the DOJ Task Force on Financial Fraud and Money Laundering. In 2004, he assumed the leadership of the Dangerous Drugs Board as the agency's executive director.
Aside from Vigilant, Calida also served as senior vice president of the insurance company Prudential Guarantee and Assurance Inc.
Calida was endorsed by then Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as a candidate for the Ombudsman post in 2011. Prior to his return to government service, he was also one of the campaign managers of the 2016 Duterte-Marcos presidential-vice presidential campaign.President Duterte has described Calida as "passionately... pro-Marcos.”
Calida faces criminal and administrative charges at the Office of the Ombudsman.
According to one of the charges, Calida allegedly violated the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees for failing to divest his interest in his family-owned security agency, which received ₱261.39 million worth of contracts from the Department of Justice and other government agencies.
Calida has denied any conflict of interest and said he is not liable under the Code of Conduct for Public Officials nor the anti-graft law.
Tags: #COA, #retiredSolGen, #MarcosJr., #Calida, #anon-auditorforCOA