Kapamilya star Nikki Valdez threw shade on Solicitor General Jose Calida.
In a tweet, Nikki joked about singing Frank Sintra’s “My Way” with the famous line “the end is near” to chide Calida who used that line also against ABS-CBN a few months ago.
“Let us all sing… ‘and now the end is near…’ Char!”
https://twitter.com/nikkivaldez_/status/1300999729791209472
Valdez’s tweet was in response to the Inquirer’s article about alleged anomalies at the Solicitor Generals office.
In the article, the Commission on Audit has flagged the Office of the Solicitor General for its undocumented travel expenses amounting to 1.16 million pesos.
“The grant and liquidation of cash advances amounting to P1,169,121.61 for local and foreign travels were not supported with the requisite documents,” said COA.
Aside from this latest COA report, the OSG under Calida was also previously flagged in May 2019 for its failure to document 7.1 million pesos worth of foreign travel expenses.
In 2016, COA has also issued notice of disallowances to the OSG for the questionable excess allowances which its lawyers continually received.
According to the report, OSG lawyers received allowances exceeding 50% of their salaries which was said to the their legal services fee.
Exceeding 50% of their annual audit report, the COA called on the government’s primary law firm to refund the excess allowances and limit receipts to the 50-percent cap. These allowances and honoraria were paid by OSG’s client government agencies for its legal services.
Meanwhile, aside from COA report, Calida was also linked in the anomalous government deals by his security agency Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Incorporated.
In a 2018 privilege speech by former Sen. Sonny Trillanes, he said that Calida’s security agency Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Incorporated was able to secure 16 government contracts amounting to 358.3 million since 2016.
“Talagang pinakyaw n’ya ang mga kontrata simula noong nakapwesto sila,” said Trillanes.
Calida was one of the prime movers in the shutdown of ABS-CBN franchise. He was the one who filed the quo warranto petition at the Supreme Court for alleged constitutional violations of ABS-CBN’s franchise which later on was dismissed by the high court.
Calida was said to be the one responsible for pressuring the NTC to issue a cease and desist order against ABS-CBN which forced them to shut off its broadcast.
