Sara snubbing House hearings

Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday said she will not attend the House good government and public accountability committee’s continuing investigation into her office’s budget utilization.

Instead, Duterte said she would submit a letter and affidavit about her office’s use of the so-called confidential funds.

She said she was invited to the first hearing but it was just a waste of time as she was not given a chance to explain the utilization of the OVP budget.

“So I don’t know why they are inviting me; they didn’t ask me questions,” she said in Filipino. “I am not going to attend the hearings to follow because when I was there, they just told me to take a seat.”

In that hearing, she refused to take her oath to tell only the truth to the panel.

The House committee on good government and public accountability has invited the Vice President to the 20 November hearing.

In the previous hearing, it was learned that Duterte directly oversaw the P500 million in confidential and intelligence funds of her office.

This was confirmed by her subordinates who attended the hearing after they had repeatedly ignored earlier summons by the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability probing alleged irregularities in the use of OVP funds.

Direct control?

During the inquiry on Monday, it was revealed that neither the OVP’s finance officer, chief accountant, nor budget officers had personal knowledge of or direct involvement in overseeing the secret funds.

The funds were disbursed in four installments of P125 million each, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2022 through the first three quarters of 2023.

The OVP’s Administrative and Financial Services Director, Rosalynne Sanchez, denied any knowledge of or control over the use of the confidential funds, stating that the oversight of the funds was the responsibility of Special Disbursement Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta, who reported to Duterte’s chief of staff, Undersecretary Zuleika Lopez.

OVP Budget Office Chief Administrative Officer Kelvin Gerome Teñido, who was part of the team that crafted the 2023 budget proposal for the office, confirmed that the OVP had requested a fund augmentation from the Department of Budget and Management, including for its CIF, which did not undergo his usual review process.

The request, submitted to the DBM on 20 August 2022, was supposed to go under Teñido’s scrutiny, especially the request for confidential funds. However, Teñido explained to the panel that once he received the request, it was immediately submitted to the DBM.

“We merely relied on how the physical and financial plan was drafted and approved. The plan was already approved by the head of agency,” he said, referring to Vice President Duterte.

Teñido also confirmed that the OVP utilized the confidential funds for purposes not directly related to national security, the intended purpose of the funds.

These included socioeconomic program deliveries, expected outcomes, safe implementation of OVP initiatives, confidence-building measures, and success indicators.

More questions

Given that standard financial officers were excluded from the process, lawmakers raised concerns over how such a substantial sum — P500 million disbursed over four quarters — could be managed with so little internal oversight.

Both Acosta and Lopez had previously worked under Duterte during her tenure as Davao City mayor, where similarly large confidential funds were allocated annually to her office.