OVP spent P16M for safehouse rentals — CoA

The Office of the Vice President (OVP) spent a whopping P16 million to rent safe houses for 11 days, with one daily rental as high as P250,000, the Commission on Audit (CoA) said Thursday.

The P16 million was part of the OVP’s P125-million confidential fund, which was spent in merely 11 days from 21 to 31 December 2022, Vice President Sara Duterte’s first year in office.

CoA intelligence and confidential funds auditor Gloria Camora presented 34 acknowledgment receipts before the House Good Government and Public Accountability Committee, two of which showed that the OVP spent P1 million each day on 26 and 28 December.

According to Camora, one receipt represented one safe house. Thus, the P1 million spent on 28 December translated to a P250,000 daily rental.

Panel chairperson Joel Chua said the amount was drastically high for a house lease compared to high-end luxury hotels and condos in Boracay and Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City, which only range from P25,000 to P90,000 per day and month, respectively.

Camora said that while the OVP submitted the necessary receipts subject to audit, they could not provide further information on the safe houses due to a lack of manpower. She also cited the confidential nature of the fund.

“You know, when you looked at the receipts, you should have been surprised by the rent amounts for 11 days. P16 million is very glaring,” Chua told Camora in Filipino.

Camora explained that the audit team could not identify whether the rented properties were top-end to warrant such an enormous amount. She, however, assured lawmakers that the OVP complied with the essential requirements, including a CoA joint circular on the use of confidential and intelligence funds.

Frustrated, Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop insisted the CoA could have done much better rather than rely solely on documentary proof of payment, with no way to verify the authenticity of the information.

“So, CoA has no way to know if the acknowledgment receipts submitted were fake? Would my statement be correct?” Acop asked, to which Camora replied, “Yes, Mr. Chair.”

Some of the acknowledgment receipts submitted by the OVP were unsigned, illegible, had missing names, or only had the signatures of the recipients. The documents also lacked supporting papers such as lease contracts and other pertinent records.

The audit records also showed the OVP spent the same amount of P16 million for safehouse rentals in both the first and second quarters of 2023, Duterte’s first full year in office, but with significantly longer rental periods compared to the 11 days in the fourth quarter of 2022.