Face House, explain intel funds, Sara urged

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — For the first time since they had a falling out, Speaker Martin Romualdez spoke openly about his estranged ally, Vice President Sara Duterte, advising her to face the congressional probe on her alleged misuse of confidential funds.

“She should attend, take oath and explain because of all her officials, only one has knowledge about the funds,” he told Manila-based reporters who covered the mini-Bagong Pilipinas Serbisyo Fair yesterday that will provide assistance to victims of several calamities that hit the region.

The leader of the House of Representatives, who has incurred Duterte’s wrath, was referring to the P612.5 million that the committee on good government and public accountability has been investigating, where hundreds of millions turned out to be questionable.

The Vice President also attacked President Marcos, who was her running mate in the May 2022 presidential elections, shortly after the P125 million in confidential funds she received in December 2022 became the subject of notice of disallowance of the Commission on Audit.

There were also other substantial amounts that were discovered to be anomalous, since the Office of the Vice President obtained a total of P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds, and P112.5 million when she was still head of the Department of Education until July 19 this year.

The Speaker is in the Bicol region as the House launched “Tabang Bicol, Tindog Oragon” initiative that delivered a total of P850 million in aid to victims of typhoons Pepito, Nika, Kristine, Marce and Leon.

House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe also urged Duterte to face Congress and stop her “calculated strategy of evasion and deflection.”

“Stop playing the victim. Stop the deception. The Vice President should stop using her staff as human shields. It is about time she face Congress, answer the questions and stop blaming others for her failures and fear of accountability,” Dalipe said.

Dalipe was reacting to Duterte’s claim that her staff and officials, whom she described as non-politicians, did not deserve the scrutiny brought by the House’s investigation.

Dalipe dismissed Duterte’s remarks as “yet another budol tactic of the Vice President.”

The House committee on good government and public accountability has conducted six hearings to investigate the questionable use of confidential funds by the OVP and DepEd.

Duterte has attended only once where she refused to take an oath, read a prepared statement, and left without addressing inquiries from the lawmakers.

Key OVP officials from Duterte’s inner circle – assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio, special disbursing officer Gina Acosta, and husband-and-wife Edward and Sunshine Charry Fajarda – have repeatedly ignored House invitations and subpoenas. They have since been cited for contempt and ordered arrested.

During the sixth hearing on Wednesday, OVP Undersecretary and chief of staff Zuleika Lopez appeared, but her evasive answers led to her being cited in contempt and detained by the House.

Experts to evaluate OVP receipts

House lawmakers will be turning over liquidation records of the OVP to law enforcement agencies to evaluate the suspicious acknowledgment receipts (AR).

“I would like to move that these dubious, spurious and highly irregular acknowledgment receipts be referred to the Philippine Statistics Office to verify the names enumerated therein, if these persons really exist,” panel chairman Rep. Joel Chua manifested, referring to the case of a certain “Mary Grace Piattos” who allegedly received payment as OVP informant.

Ako Bikol party-list Rep. Jil Bongalon likewise moved that these questionable ARs, like 158 pieces amounting to P23.8 million in purported reimbursements, be forwarded to handwriting and document experts.

“I would also like to move that these ARs be referred to the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police for them to assist us in conducting a handwriting or signature examinations to verify the recipients of these confidential funds,” Bongalon added.

Lawyer Gloria Camora, head of COA’s internal confidential funds audit office, admitted to House leaders the OVP indeed submitted erroneous documents, but downplayed such as “inadvertence and typographical errors,” as claimed by the office of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Congressmen discovered that ARs carried wrong dates, nameless signatures and vice versa, along with undiscernible names of signatories, which can hardly be considered as proof of disbursement of confidential funds, which Rep. Rodge Gutierrez described as “belatedly prepared.”

Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong noted the name of a certain “Kokoy Villamin,” who appeared to be Duterte’s informant in the OVP and DepEd which she headed from mid-2022 to July 19 this year.

“Is it a coincidence that the same two offices, headed by the same person, submitting to you the same ARs, can encounter two persons with the same name, bearing the same last name? Is that possible?” Adiong asked Camora, who replied this was “less likely to happen.”

“It’s very obvious that this case of dubious and questionable ARs is not limited to Mary Grace Piattos. This will open all these ARs to floodgates of question. We have seen these where there were same names but with different dates and signatures,” Adiong said.

OVP budget cut

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said she would not support increasing the budget of Vice President Sara Duterte, saying her predecessors had fulfilled their role with less than a billion allocated budget.

During the Kapihan sa Senado forum yesterday, Hontiveros said the Senate approved budget of P733.2 million for the OVP should be enough to sustain its operations.

“That level of the OVP proposed budget should be enough. Previous OVP administrations have operated in that level,” Hontiveros said, citing the terms of previous vice presidents Leni Robredo and Jejomar Binay.

Hontiveros found no problem with the House of Representatives’ move to realign P600 million in OVP social services to other relevant agencies.

“I see no need to amend the House version because these OVP programs are just repetition of existing programs in other departments. The OVP still has the power to earmark the funds for beneficiary identification, even if the funds are with another agency,” Hontiveros said.

As to the Vice President’s continued refusal to attend the House of Representatives’ investigation into her alleged misuse of confidential funds, Hontiveros reminded Duterte of her sworn duty as public official to face accountability.

“She seems selective about the hearings to attend. She did not attend the hearings she was invited in, and yet she appeared in another hearing uninvited just to have a photo opportunity with her father,” Hontiveros said. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Marc Jayson Cayabyab