EDITORIAL - Evading Congress

Amid reports that a top aide in the Office of the Vice President had left for the United States, the Department of Justice ordered the Bureau of Immigration to issue a lookout bulletin covering six OVP officials and a former education official. The seven have been ignoring subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives committee on good government and public accountability.

OVP chief of staff Zuleika Lopez left the country on Nov. 4, taking an evening flight to Los Angeles, California. The OVP said yesterday that Lopez is on a personal trip to the US and will be back on Nov. 16. If Lopez fails to return, it will inevitably bolster suspicions of several lawmakers that Vice President Sara Duterte is trying to cover up the alleged misuse of funds, especially confidential funds, both in the OVP and the Department of Education when she was the DepEd secretary.a

The Bureau of Immigration is still trying to determine if OVP special disbursing officer Gina Acosta has also left the country. Another SDO, Edward Fajarda, also traveled overseas, but returned to the country on June 25 with his wife Sunshine Charry Fajarda, who served as Duterte’s assistant secretary in the DepEd.

Apart from Lopez, Acosta and the Fajarda couple, the House has summoned OVP chief accountant Julieta Villadelrey, assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio who chairs the bids and awards committee, and administrative and financial services director Rosalynne Sanchez.

The Vice President has refused to deal further with the House panel, saying she would leave it up to the lawmakers to do whatever they pleased with the budget the OVP is seeking for 2025. Duterte has said the House is merely fishing around for excuses to impeach her.

She indicated OVP cooperation with the Senate, but her office also ignored senators’ requests for pertinent documents on funding. This prompted the Senate to simply adopt the OVP budget passed by the House, which slashed by P1.3 billion the P2.037-billion appropriation sought by the OVP, leaving the office with only P733.198 million for 2025.

Apart from the loss of P1.3 billion for 2025, the Vice President could see her officials face criminal indictments in connection with alleged misuse of public funds in the OVP and DepEd when she was head of the department. If fund utilization by the two agencies is aboveboard, the best and quickest way to show this is for the officials to face lawmakers and provide the requested documents. Flight, on the other hand, is almost always construed as guilt.