MANILA - Tourism Secretary Wanda Teo on Sunday denied any role in the placement of over P60 million worth of ads by Department of Tourism (DOT) on the TV show of her brothers, a deal that was flagged by auditors.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged the placement of ads in the show "Kilos Pronto," produced and hosted by Teo's brothers Ben and Erwin Tulfo, which is a blocktimer on government station PTV 4.
COA said there was no memorandum of agreement (MOA) or contract between PTV 4 and the Tulfo’s Bitag Media Unlimited Inc (BMUI) to air DOT commercials.
Despite this, PTV 4 last year paid Bitag P22.09 million in May, P18.96 million in November and another P18.96 million in December.
"Since there was no MOA wherein the terms and conditions of the agreement are supposed to be spelled out, there was also no basis for the computations on how the said three payments were arrived at," COA noted.
Teo however said she didn't know that the commercials would be placed in the show of her brothers.
"Ang kontrata is between DOT and PTV [4]," Teo told DZMM Teleradyo.
"Beyond that hindi ko na alam kung ibinigay nila sa outfit ng brother ko," she added.
COA has asked PTV 4 management to submit supporting documents for the ad deal with Bitag.