BBM gave confidential funds; Sara used it as ‘secret kitty’
Confidential funds at first melded the Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte political dynasties. It later melted their unity.
It all started in 2022:
• June 25, Sara asked the AFP for her own VP Security and Protection Group. Separate from the Presidential Security Group, VPSPG was to have 470 soldiers and policemen.
• Aug. 22, Sara sought P403.46-million additional cash for her Office of the VP. It included P250-million confidential fund. Unusual, because the OVP for six years under predecessor Leni Robredo never needed any CF.
Budget Sec. Amenah Pangandaman, of the Lanao political clan, gave Sara P221.4 million, including P125-million CF. Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin, from the Abra political clan, justified it as “needed fund for new programs.”
President BBM released the P221.4 million on Dec. 13. Sara used up the P125-million CF on Dec. 21-31 – only 11 days, including Christmas, Rizal Day and New Year’s Eve holidays.
• Dec. 11, supermajority dynastic senators and congressmen enacted the 2023 national budget. Sara’s OVP got P500-million CF and the Dept. of Education, of which she was then secretary, another P150-million CF. They granted themselves billion-peso pork barrels. BBM signed it into law Dec. 20.
Again unusual, because DepEd has no confidential projects. Still, dynasts claimed that Sara needed it to spy on school bullies.
Sara’s OVP got P2.3 billion in all in 2023 – 223-percent increase from Robredo’s P713.4 million in 2022. Robredo got only a little over P3 billion in six years.
In late 2023 the BBM-Sara political marriage went on the rocks. So in the budgeting for 2024, BBM’s dynastic pals in Congress gave Sara’s OVP only P1.87 billion – zero CF. No CF for DepEd either.
And in the recent budgeting for 2025, Sara’s OVP got only P733 million – again no more CF.
A House inquiry on Sara’s CF spending coincided with deliberations on her OVP 2025 budget. Sara was livid. The committee on good government and public accountability questioned her “misuse” of OVP-DepEd’s P612.5-million CFs in 2022 and 2023.
Among its findings in six hearings:
• 405 of 677 payees (60 percent) were inexistent, said committee chairman Rep. Joel Chua.
Philippine Statistics Authority has no birth, marriage or death records of Mary Grace Piattos, Chippy McDonald, Fernando Tempura, Carlos Miguel Oishi and Reymunda Jane Nova – all snack brands.
• No record either of Kokoy Villamin, who received cash from OVP and DepEd but with different penmanship and signatures, said Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong.
Milky Secuya twice received money from OVP on the same day and used the same pen ink for different signatures.
Alice Crescencio signed three DepEd acknowledgement receipts from three distant sites: Pasay City, Iligan City and Lanao del Sur.
Sally and Shiela also used similar ink and signatures on the same date, one in Surigao and the other in Digos, 400 kilometers apart.
• OVP and DepEd officers broke state accounting rules on handling CFs, Rep. Romeo Acop said.
OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta and DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda handled hundred million-peso withdrawals but had no fidelity bonds.
Acosta admitted turning over P125-million cash every quarter without proper documentation to VPSPG chief Col. Raymund Dante Lachica. Similar confession by Fajarda in giving large sums to DepEd security head Col. Dennis Nolasco.
Acosta and Fajarda swore that they merely followed direct orders from VP Sara, Acop and other congressmen quoted their testimonies.
• DepEd Usec. Nolasco Mempin, a retired major general, was used for falsified CF spending, Rep. Gerville Luistro said.
DepEd needed to justify millions in CF disbursements. Mempin stated that Sara asked him to secure certifications from Army battalion commanders who officially joined Youth Summits. DepEd submitted the certificates to the Commission on Audit as proof of spending. It turned out that local governments, not DepEd nor AFP, bankrolled the events.
• Sara treated the CFs as discretionary secret funds, Chua concluded.
• Rep. France Castro lamented that last Monday’s hearing was their last, but did not include Lachica and Nolasco. She feared that without getting the colonels’ side under intense grilling, congressmen won’t be able to pin the scams on Sara. Only Acosta and Fajarda could be held liable.
Sara in fact expressed relief that the “political persecutions” were over. She’d rather that congressmen use their findings to impeach her, and thus spare her subordinates from torment.
That’s exactly what they’ll do, said Reps. Geraldine Roman and Jude Acidre.
Columnist Ramon Tulfo, close friend of Sara’s father president Rody Duterte, provided the context: “If BBM wants to know where his assassin will come from, he should look at VPSPG. Sara put it up as one of BBM’s accommodations to her, as he won due to their tandem.
“Sara doesn’t need many security men. Predecessors Robredo and Noli de Castro had only few. Why have 400-plus bodyguards when she’s just a spare tire?
“Sara used her CFs to buy their loyalty. That’s how the Dutertes are: they spoil their bodyguards to obey their orders even if wrong.”
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