By PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

Malacañang said it remains committed to fighting graft and corruption in the country in the midst of reports that the Philippine government lost more than P101 billion to graft last year.

“We have never become complacent when it comes to pursuing anti-graft and anti-corruption measures,” Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a radio interview Saturday over state-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

Media reports, citing data from the Commission on Audit (COA), said a huge amount of public money was lost to several forms of graft by which public funds were stolen, misused, or mishandled.

But Valte clarified that the media made a wrong conclusion in making the report after obviously citing just one report when in fact there were other data made available by the COA.

“It seems that nagkaroon ng conclusion doon sa isang parte nung report nila na automatically just because there were some audit findings biglang ang conclusion it was lost to graft,” Valte said.

Citing COA chair Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan, Valte said that the financial loss mentioned in media reports did not necessarily result from graft, as it was only the courts which could make such a judgment.

Valte also noted it was clear from the COA report that unliquidated cash advances mentioned in December 2011 were accumulated from prior years.