Mishandled

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.Vice President Sara Duterte could be realizing this by now... or maybe not. Her father has said she is stubborn as a mule. She’s either determined to make her point, or, if her critics in the education department are correct, she’s simply a slow learner.

Last week, the VP disclosed that the “mishandling” of the budget was among the reasons for her resignation from the Cabinet.

With the congressional pork barrel zombie finding new life in “unprogrammed appropriations” and now growing exponentially with each budget season, and Ralph Recto impounding our PhilHealth funds and diverting these to his former colleagues’ pork trough, people will actually agree with VP Sara.

This is a valid cause that can be championed by the “new opposition” – as the VP and her supporters are now presenting themselves.

But because people are seeing that when it comes to the VP’s beefs, it’s all about her and not the nation, the budget issue that immediately came to mind when she bemoaned the “mishandling” was the funding for the Office of the Vice President plus the Department of Education, which she headed until July 19.

More precisely, it’s the loss of funding. The Veep’s broadside against an unnamed tambaloslos cost her P650 million in confidential funds – P500 million for the OVP, and P150 million for the DepEd.

In her clan’s fiefdom, her two brothers are also lambasting the considerable cuts in the revenue allotments for Davao City, including funding for flood control. So how did the clan utilize the inordinately huge amounts allocated to the city when the patriarch was president?

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The VP’s tiff with those who hold the power of the purse – who were insulted by her remark about the mishandled national budget – could mean further cuts in the OVP budget from 2025 until the end of her term in 2028.

At the very least, it could reveal how she spent P125 million in confidential and intelligence funds within just 11 days in the gift-giving month of December 2022, and another P125 million in CIF for the OVP from Feb. 6 to March 29 last year, with P125 million more from April 25 to June 30.

Former lawmaker and Bayan chair Neri Colmenares said the CIF disbursements included P22 million for unexplained “purchase of information,” P27 million for “payment of reward” and P82 million for “food aid” – an item that he said is not allowed for CIF.

In an unprecedented move, the House of Representatives committee on appropriations is invoking its oversight powers and lifting the veil of secrecy surrounding CIFs. Panel chair Stella Quimbo of Marikina has subpoenaed Commission on Audit (COA) records on how the OVP and DepEd spent their CIF in 2022 and 2023.

The subpoena was suggested by the Makabayan party-list bloc of ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel.

This move could be limited to secret funds granted to civilian agencies with no involvement in national security, but it doesn’t minimize the significance of the precedent that is being set.

Quimbo might yet redeem herself in the eyes of her former colleagues in the University of the Philippines School of Economics, who are disappointed that she has gone over to the other side.

State auditors are reportedly still considering the appropriate response to the House subpoena, because of laws governing CIFs.

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We can anticipate the reaction of the VP and the “new opposition” to this development: it’s part of an ongoing political persecution.

The House appropriations panel led by Quimbo can belie this by not limiting the CIF scrutiny to the OVP and DepEd. It can ask the COA, for example, for a list of local government officials with CIF allocations and how the funds were utilized.

Is the CIF being used, for example, for “KBL”? This stands for kasal, binyag, libing – politicians’ donations, taken from public funds but presented as personal gifts to their constituents, for special events such as weddings, baptisms and funerals.

Taxpayers are already bankrolling KBL, through the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program. The DSWD website describes AICS as one of its services “that provides medical assistance, burial, transportation, education, food, or financial assistance for other support services or needs of a person or family.”

AICS is supposed to be disbursed only by the DSWD. Yet VP Sara and her BFF Sen. Imee Marcos were shown together at an AICS distribution event in Davao City in November 2022.

The Malasakit Centers are also under the DSWD and listed as components of AICS. Yet the masses think the centers are personal projects of just one epal politician aligned with the new opposition, who seems to have eluded the ire (so far) of the super coalition.

The government will have to tighten the rules governing AICS. Since lawmakers themselves want to get their hands on this ayuda program, however, the measures will have to come from the executive.

Let’s see if Quimbo and her committee, often described as a “powerful” body, can tighten the rules on CIF utilization by civilian agencies including local government units.

What’s next for VP Sara as she keeps hurling stones from her glass house? Can she survive until 2028 on what, by her standards, would be a shoestring budget?

Oh well, she can always borrow a page from her predecessor Leni Robredo. Despite being marginalized by VP Sara’s father, Robredo managed to mobilize CIF-free OVP resources to assist Filipinos.

The Dutertes, of course, wouldn’t want VP Sara to suffer Robredo’s fate and lose the 2028 race. The VP can start by being mindful of that glass house.