IN the headlines and on news channels these past weeks have been the findings of the Commission on Audit (CoA) 'flagging' different agencies for extravagant expenditures and unlawful purchases and acquisitions on the one hand and unspent allocations on the other. Predictably, the heads of the agencies concerned received a thrashing from the public.

In response to the beleaguered Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Francisco Duque's anguished winarak (broken) cry, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines rose to the defense of CoA with a reminder on the constitutional powers of the commission.