AMID calls for her resignation, Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo attended a Cabinet meeting held Monday, May 7, at the Malacañan Palace, during which she greeted President Rodrigo Duterte.
A photo taken by Special Assistant to the President Christopher Go showed the President shaking hands with a smiling Teo.
The President ordered a week ago an investigation into the P60-million advertisement deal between the Department of Tourism (DOT) and state-run PTV-4, which placed the commercial advertisements of the DOT in the show hosted by Teo's brothers.
Duterte's order stemmed from the Commission on Audit's (COA) 2017 report, which revealed that last year, around P60.01 million was paid to PTV4's block-timer Bitag Media Unlimited Inc. (BMUI), which is owned by Ben Tulfo. Bitag Media runs the "Kilos Pronto" program hosted by Tulfo and brother Erwin. They are brothers of the Tourism chief.
The COA noted that the PTV4 paid BMUI some P22.09 million on May 11, 2017 and P18.06 million each on November 8 and December 15 of the same year, despite lack of documents with regard to the advertisement deal.
The state auditors' report have prompted critics to urge Teo to resign out of delicadeza.
Earlier Monday, Teo said her brother Ben will return the P60 million payment for the DOT advertisements while her husband, Roberto Teo, will resign as board member of the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (Tieza), DOT's infrastructure arm. (SunStar Philippines)