THE newly elected officials of one of the two richest villages in Quezon province asked the Commission on Audit (CoA) to look into the multimillion-peso mothballed Covid-19 facility built on top of a mountain.

Barangay Cagsiay 1 chairman Danilo Pastraña, of the municipality of Mauban, said he and the barangay council sent a letter-request to CoA Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba to press the latter to conduct an in-depth inquiry.

Pastraña told the members of the Quezon City Press Club that a special audit is vital to determine the regularity of its implementation, otherwise, "those responsible public officials must be held liable."

He said the buildings may be considered "white elephant'' as they have not been used.

Citing records, the village chief said the Quezon Power Plant (QPL) and the San Buenaventura Power Plant (SBPL) estimated the funds they released to the barangay for the projects reached P42 million.

Pastraña (no relation with the incumbent Mauban Mayor Erwin Pastraña) said that the construction of the facilities on top of the mountain was beyond comprehension.

"They cannot be transformed into an ordinary hospital or clinic as the patients need to brave their way up on the steep road," he said.

Cagsiay 1 is the host barangay of the two coal-fired power plants.

Being the most adversely affected, it received several funds from power plants operations aside from the huge amount of shares in real property taxes.

However, the CoA recently released its audit report wherein it stated that the barangay "failed to submit, among other documents, the Financial Transaction Documents (FTDs) for the past 11 years."

The CoA asked Rogelio Manrique and Myla Jacalne, former barangay chairman and treasurer, respectively, to submit the required documents but they failed to do so within the 60-day period given to them by the commission.

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