Sara Duterte Attends House Hearing On Funds, Takes Oath

Vice President Sara Duterte finally agreed to take her oath as a resource person of the House committee on good government and public accountability, to enable her to defend her chief of staff Zuleika Lopez.

Duterte initially questioned the House committee on good government and public accountability on the extended detention of Lopez, saying that it is “illegal.”

But before she could speak up to make her manifestations, panel chairman Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua warned Duterte that he would not recognize her unless she took her oath “to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

The Vice President took the oath after Chua’s warning.

“Mr. Chair, the position of undersecretary, the secretaries and other appointed positions are positions of trust and confidence by the appointment of who, Mr. Chair?” Duterte asked.

“The resignation letters of the usec (undersecretary) and asecs (assistant secretaries) of DepEd were accepted by the appointing authority. Who is that, Mr. Chair? The President of the Re-public of the Philippines?” she pressed.

Chua concurred with Duterte, with the Vice President adding “it is not the secretary of DepEd.”

“So you asked the President of the Republic of the Philippines. Why did he accept the resignation of the usec and asecs?” Duterte said, to the apparent surprise of Chua and the other members of the committee.

Duterte went on to ask, “Why are you questioning the due process? Ask the appointing authority why he accepted the resignation letter.” This led to further confusion in the panel.

Chua replied that they would tackle the question of the Vice President at a later time.

“We are not yet in the matter that you have mentioned. We are not yet in the period of interpellation. I was just about to open the interpellation,” he said. “We are still conferring, the members of the committee. Please do respect it.”

“Yes, I am very respectful. I am dovetailing from Congressman (Rodante) Marcoleta. The appointing authority is the President of the Republic of the Philippines,” Duterte replied, further pressing Chua to answer why his panel questioned the due process of resignations and appointments of the undersecretary and assistant secretaries.

With her tone getting higher, Duterte said, “Sir, the person (Lopez) is in detention because you questioned the due process. Where is the explanation of your due process? I asked you earlier.”

“I did not answer,” Chua said, but Duterte got more aggressive, continually stating, “I heard you. I have seen you answer. You said the ‘secretary.’ All of you, you do not know that it is the President who is making the appointment.”

This prompted Chua to declare a one-minute suspension of the hearing.

“Mr. Chair, you need to reconsider the extension of her (Lopez) detention because it is illegal in the first place. You asked the President why he accepted the resignation,” Duterte said after the session’s resumption.

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop advised Duterte to go to court if she has any questions about the actions of the House committee.

“I will go to court,” Duterte answered. “But every day, you are depriving a person of her liberty while I await.”

“Do you really want to reveal to the Filipino people your knowledge of the law?” Duterte asked Acop.

“What I am saying is let us follow the law of the House because you are in the house of the Congress,” Acop replied.

“We follow the law. Why will you penalize and punish Usec. Lopez for an act of the President?” Duterte asked.

Chua explained to Duterte that the detention for contempt of Lopez was made by the committee of the whole.

Duterte then lamented the proceedings, saying that the “Philippines is being embarrassed. Is this the kind of House of Representatives we have?”

Prior to Duterte’s taking her oath, Chua opened the committee’s seventh hearing with a fiery rebuke, asserting that Duterte and her team have resorted to theatrics and obfuscation to bury the truth behind mounting anomalies.

“Instead of answering all our questions, she staged siege-type actions inside the Congress and stated too many stories about the detention of Attorney Lopez,” Chua said.

He lambasted the diversionary tactics of the Office of the Vice President as they kept dodging the panel’s question on how the P612.5-million confidential funds given to the OVP and the Department of Education were spent.

The Manila representative also slammed Duterte’s breach of protocols in Congress, citing this as the reason behind the transfer of Lopez to the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.

During the hearing, former DepEd special disbursing officer Edward Fajarda and Office of the Vice President special disbursing officer Gina Acosta both claimed they have no idea how the confidential funds were used, since these were disbursed to security officers. 

For the DepEd, Fajarda said he handed the funds to DepEd security officer colonel Dennis Nolasco.

For the OVP, Acosta said she handed over the OVP’s P125 million in full to Col. Raymund Dante Lachica, head of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group.

Asked how they withdrew the funds, Fajarda confirmed the testimony of Landbank officials from the sixth hearing. He said he encashed the checks and used three bags — one large backpack and two duffel bags — to store the P37.5 million in cash.

The checks were only released to the special disbursing officers after the disbursement vouchers were approved by the accounting division.

He also confirmed that the withdrawals were made in three separate transactions, P37.5 million each, and eventually kept in a vault in the DepEd’s office.

Acosta shared a similar experience. She said she was accompanied by OVP assistant chief of staff Lemuel Ortonio and two security drivers. She used four “traveling bags” to store the P125 million. This was done four times, from December 2022 to the third quarter of 2023.

She then recounted that the funds were brought to her office, specifically an extension office to which only she holds the key to, and that she left the bags on the floor for Lachica to pick up.

Acosta initially stated that she placed the funds in three vaults, each about four feet tall, with a capacity to hold around P40 million. She also managed to fit the remaining P5 million into the vaults.

The OVP did not previously have vaults, Acosta added.

Batangas 2nd District Rep. Gerville “Jinky Bitrics” Luistro then asked Acosta if the vaults were purchased specifically to store the confidential funds. She confirmed this.

Both special disbursing officers insisted that the acknowledgment receipts they received from the security officers, which they submitted as documentary evidence of payments to the Commission on Audit (COA), were authentic.

For Fajarda, handing over the funds to Nolasco was equivalent to disbursing them to the recipients. However, the committee disagreed, as he did not personally deliver the payments.

1-Rider party-list Rep. Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez asked Fajarda if he never had “any interaction whatsoever with any of the recipients” of the confidential funds. Fajarda said, “Yes, your honor.”

This raised concerns about whether the confidential funds, which Fajarda released to Nolasco in weekly portions, were actually distributed to legitimate recipients.

The former DepEd special disbursing officer said he requested “quarterly activity plans” from Nolasco before releasing the funds, which he noted ranged from P4 million to P6 million weekly.

He also mentioned that he does not have a copy of the document because it was confidential and only returned it to Nolasco.

Fajarda also confirmed that he only relied on the acknowledgment receipts provided by Nolasco on the “youth leadership summits” that the DepEd said used confidential funds for.

However, the Philippine Army previously said they had not received a single centavo for the summits they were instructed to conduct.

On the OVP’s use of confidential funds, Acosta repeatedly said that she only based the accomplishment reports she submitted solely on the receipts and documents provided by Lachica, who was responsible for the “surveillance” and “monitoring” of operations.

Like Fajarda, she admitted that she did not personally know any of the recipients of the confidential funds.

Both special disbursing officers also expressed full trust in the security officers, as they were informed by Vice President Sara Duterte that a security officer would be designated for the task.

Fajarda and Acosta confirmed that matters of confidential funds are discussed between them as special disbursing officers and Duterte as head of the agencies.

Lawmakers reminded them that the certification they submitted to COA, confirming the use of confidential funds, implies that they are not allowed to delegate the disbursement of these funds to others.

The state auditor overseeing the audit of the funds confirmed this, with the committee emphasizing that those accountable for any misuse or loss of funds would be the special disbursing officers and not the security officers. – With a report from Philstar.com