By Hannah Torregoza Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday called for a proper audit of the funds and the special powers given to President Duterte under the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act. Sen. Risa Hontiveros (Senator Risa Hontiveros / Facebook / MANILA BULLETIN) This should be done before the passage of the proposed “Bayanihan to Recover as One” bill which Congress is now rushing to pass into law before Congress’ adjournment, Hontiveros said. Hontiveros said that despite the passage of the Bayanihan Law or Republic Act No. 11469 that granted emergency powers to the President, the government has failed to meet its health and economic relief targets, as shown by the massive backlogs, slow contact tracing efforts, and delays in the release of test results to persons under quarantine or monitoring. “Dahil sa Bayanihan Act ay isinuko na ng Kongreso ang kaniyang 'power of the purse.' Kaya kailangang bantayang maigi kung saan napupunta ang pera, (Because of the Bayanihan Act, Congress practically surrendered its right to exercise ‘the power of the purse.’ Thus, the need to strictly monitor where the money went to),” Hontiveros said in her privilege speech at the Senate. “We should have established sufficient infrastructure and mustered enough human resources to adequately respond to this health crisis. However, this is clearly not the case,” she said. Hontiveros noted that in the past four months, billions of public funds were entrusted to the hands of the government and the powers of the President were expanded. Yet until now, the government has yet to fulfill its promise of conducting 30,000 tests for COVID-19 a day, and there is no clear evidence and no definitive statement that the Philippines was able to flatten the curve of the pandemic. Hontiveros, likewise, called out the Department of Health (DOH) for failing to present to the public comprehensive, reliable and accurate data on the pandemic. “The public and policy makers themselves are confused over the data being given by the DOH. Suddenly there are now ‘fresh cases’ and new cases’ but these are old data. For government to produce the right policies, we have to have the right data in our hands," she said. Hontiveros also criticized the health agency for the purchase of overpriced personal protective equipment (PPEs) and testing kits as revealed by other Senators. “How can we trust the government to judiciously use public funds if there are people who have no conscience and is using the pandemic for profiteering?” she lamented. She said the government should address these “major flaws” first as the country transitions to a new and better normal. The senator also dared the government to step-up and employ the “whole of society” approach to overcome this crisis by including more health professionals and scientists and retract police and military from the forefront. “To my mind…the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One (BARO) bill, as it is, will not provide reassurance—neither on the challenge of keeping the health epidemic curve flat nor on the challenge of keeping the economic epidemic curve flat,” she pointed out. Hontiveros reiterated fighting the war against COVID-19 is unthinkable without proper data to effectively guide the public. “It is, therefore, imperative to have an honest to goodness and better data analytics and information management,” she stressed. “This data, which must be fully and clearly disclosed to the public would give us a better picture of where we are in this fight, and help us navigate the ‘new normal’,” the lawmaker stressed.