DepEd exec corroborates cash dole-outs during Sara's stint; says she received P25K monthly

Another top official in the Department of Education (DepEd) confirmed receiving monthly cash envelopes containing P25,000 during Vice President Sara Duterte’s stint as the agency’s secretary. 

DepEd Chief Accountant Rhunna Catalan told the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability on Tuesday that she received envelopes nine times from February to September last year from then-DepEd Assistant Secretary Sunshine Charry Fajarda, Duterte’s alleged trusted aide, as an “allowance from the Vice President.”

Catalan’s testimony added weight to the previous claims of her peers—ex-DepEd undersecretary Gloria Mercado and DepEd director and former Bids and Awards Committee chairperson Resty Osias—of receiving monthly cash envelopes from Fajarda allegedly upon the instruction of Duterte. 

Mercado and Osias both confirmed that the distribution stopped in September 2023—during the time that confidential fund issues involving the Vice President started to be exposed in the limelight and subject to scrutiny.

Former DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa, who later transferred to the OVP, also admitted that he had received cash envelopes containing cash from both Fajarda and Duterte “occasionally.”

Catalan claimed that Fajarda “requested” her to sign the liquidation vouchers for the P112.5 million of the DepEd’s confidential and intelligence funds, which were reportedly withdrawn as cash advances by Fajarda’s husband, Edward, who served as special disbursing officer at DepEd.

The funds in question were withdrawn via three separate checks of P37.5 million each, issued to then-DepEd SDO Edward Fajarda during the first three quarters of 2023, Duterte’s first full year in office. 

Catalan told lawmakers that she granted Sunshine’s request “ because it is needed as a covering letter or covering document to the liquidation documents, supporting documents.”

Hesitant at first, she admitted receiving the envelopes from Sunshine upon assurance that they did not come from the contentious confidential funds.

“At the first giving of the envelope, I honestly asked Asec. Shine if it is part of the confidential funds.  She answered, ‘No. This is just an allowance from the Secretary.’ So, I trusted her word for that,” Catalan said. 

Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro said that regardless of whether the doleouts were part of the confidential funds or from Duterte’s pocket, Catalan would be criminally liable for malversation of public funds or graft. 

Although Catalan maintained that she was never subject to pressure in receiving the envelopes, lawmakers suspect that it was given to influence her as chief accountant, similar to Mercado, who supposed that the doleouts had something to do with her position being chief of the Head of Procuring Entity, her concurrent position at the time.

Mercado retired in November 2023, a month after she was forced to resign due to her purported refusal to heed the order of the higher-ups to bypass the procurement process.

Duterte had denied Mercado's allegation, asserting she couldn't accept that she was ditched in DepEd.

Meanwhile, Luistro said the panel has already found a prima facie case of malversation against Duterte and an apparent case of breach of public trust over an unaccounted P10.4 million in confidential funds, alongside other alleged irregularities.