Drilon: Over P33B gov't funds 'parked' in PITC's coffers

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Monday said over P33 billion of government funds were parked in the Philippine International Trading Corporation, a state trading firm under the Department of Trade and Industry.

"The latest financial statement as of December 31, 2019 indicates that customers' deposits in PITC is P33.4 billion... You're talking about P33 billion in government funds deposited in a small trading firm," Drilon said in an interview on ANC, citing a Commission on Audit report.

"The deposits of the clients grew from P4.8 billion in 2015, suddenly in 2019 it grew to P33.4 billion," he added.

During the Senate budget deliberations last week, it was revealed that P9.6 billion of military fund is "sleeping" at the PITC. The same is the case with the Department of Information and Communications Technology's P3.5 billion.

Drilon reiterated that some government agencies may be engaging in this practice of parking funds at the PITC to make it appear that their budget had already been "obligated."

The increasing sleeping funds at the PITC shows that firm's delivery of services is "poor," he added.

"The Secretary of Finance or the DOF is really straining  to raise funds because of the drop in revenues and here you are -- government agencies depositing with PITC their budget so that it is made to appear that it is obligated," Drilon said.

The minority leader said the Governance Commission for GOCCs has been remiss in its duty to oversee how PITC, a state corporation, performs.

"Obviously, the GCG is not doing its job," he said.

The Senate will investigate the matter, according to Drilon, to see if the public is being "shortchanged." He said these parked funds either point to government inefficiency or corruption.

GMA News Online sought comment from the PITC but has yet to receive a response as of writing. —KBK, GMA News