Sara stonewalls on confidential fund questions

Vice President Sara Duterte and Deputy Minority Leader France Castro on Tuesday had a heated exchange after the latter questioned how the Office of the President (OVP) spent the P125-million confidential funds in 2022.

During the hearing on the proposed 2025 budget of the OVP, Castro pressed Duterte to explain how they spent the P125 million confidential funds, but the Vice President refused to answer this, saying the topic should focus on the 2025 budget.

“My answer for every question may be that I will forego the opportunity to defend the budget of the Office of the Vice President through a question and answer, and I will leave it to the House to decide on the budget submitted. So, we will just waste time here; the answers are repetitious,” she said.

Castro emphasized that while there was low utilization of the budget for 2023 as stated by the Vice President during her presentation, the 2022 confidential funds were spent completely.

“Maybe, as a first observation on the budget for 2024, the Vice President said there was slow and low utilization. So, we saw that in her presentation, that utilization was low,” the lawmaker said.

“But I just want to comment that when it came to confidential funds, utilization was at 100 percent,” Castro said.

Castro emphasized that while there was low utilization of the budget for 2023 as stated by the Vice President during her presentation, the 2022 confidential funds were spent completely.

Castro said that out of the P125 million confidential funds, P14 million was utilized for the purchase of information, P10 million for payment of reward, P16 millon for rental and other incidental expenses relative to the maintenance of safehouses, P35 million for purchase of supplies, P40 million for the provision of medical and food aid, and P10 million for payment of incentives or travelling relative to confidential operations.

“So, a total of P125 million (was used) in conducting surveillance in 132 areas in 11 days,” Castro said, adding that the Commission on Audit disallowed P73 million out of the P125 million confidential funds used by the OVP in 2022.

But Duterte asked the Appropriations Committee chair, Rep. Stella Quimbo, why Castro was being allowed to issue side comments on past budgets, instead of sticking to discussions on the 2025 budget.

“Madam chair, since you allowed her a side comment, you will allow me my comment as well,” Duterte said. “I do not understand why a person convicted of child abuse is still sitting in the House of Representatives.”

In response, Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel said the Vice President was diverting the topic in the budget hearing. “If she was able to do that in the Senate, madame chair, let’s not allow this in the House,” he said.

“It should not be that the talk is diverted so as not to answer the questions of lawmakers. This is the best opportunity, formal proceedings. The public must be able to see what the answers of the Vice President are,” he said. “So, we cannot allow these kinds of arguments that do not align with our topic.”

According to Castro, the disallowed purchases include reward payment (P10 million), payement of rewards various goods (34.8 million), payment of rewards medicines (P24.93 million), tables and chairs, desktop computers and printers (P3.5 million).