Duterte’s chief of staff denies fund role

Lawyer Zuleika Lopez, Vice President Sara Duterte’s long-time aide and current chief of staff, has drawn the ire of a House panel for consistently denying any knowledge about the utilization of the P500 million in confidential funds of the office.

Lopez, who previously left the country during the congressional probe into the OVP’s alleged fund misuse, made her first appearance at the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability on Wednesday after a series of summons.

In a previous hearing, OVP career officials, including Administrative and Financial Services Director Rosalynne Sanchez, pointed to Lopez and Special Disbursing Officer (SDO) Gina Acosta as being primarily responsible, along with Duterte, for overseeing the agency’s multi-million peso secret funds.

However, Lopez vehemently denied before the committee having any role in the utilization of the funds in question. This includes the release of disbursement vouchers, checks, and accomplishment reports, which were signed by Duterte and Acosta.

The disbursement vouchers enabled Acosta to withdraw the P500 million in secret funds in four installments of P125 million each.

According to Landbank Shaw Boulevard Branch Head Jean Abaya, Acosta, accompanied by four individuals, encashed the amount and placed it in a duffel bag before the same was transported to the OVP office in Mandaluyong.

Acosta works under Lopez. Lopez, meanwhile, has been working under Duterte since 2010 as then Davao City administrator. She holds the post until 2022.

“Your honor, Mr. Chair, because that is the truth. I really have no personal knowledge as regards to the matter of confidential funds,” Lopez told the panel.

Lawmakers, however, argued that Lopez could not feign ignorance given her position as Acosta’s immediate supervisor, who was heavily involved in disbursing the secret funds.

"I'm just wondering Atty. Zuleika, you are the CoS. Who therefore is assisting the Vice President as to the documents that she should sign and she should not sign?” Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro asked.

“I thought it was you being the chief of staff. Why did you not assist her at all in all these important documents concerning the utilization of confidential funds?” Luistro added.

Lopez responded, “There are certain areas [and information] in the Office of the Vice President that I’m not really privy to. Much as I want to give a definitive answer, these are matters or information that are not available to me, Mr. Chair.”

Luistro countered that it was “really unbelievable for a chief of staff to have known nothing about the utilization of the huge amount of P125 million not even one of the several items that was mentioned in the accomplishment report.”

In denial

Deputy Speaker David Suarez accused Lopez of “trying to paint an image of a chief of staff” while avoiding accountability.

In August, the House Committee on Appropriations issued a subpoena duces tecum requiring the Commission on Audit (COA) to submit its report on the use of the confidential funds of the OVP and the Department of Education for fiscal years 2022-2023.

Duterte, who headed the DepEd for nearly two years before resigning on 19 July, oversaw the agency’s unprecedented allocation of P125 million in confidential funds during her tenure.

Lopez admitted to writing a letter to the COA, appealing for a delay in releasing the documents pending a response to the audit reports. She confirmed that Duterte was aware of the letter.

"In this letter, you are asking the CoA not to comply with the subpoena issued by Congress,” Suarez said. “And in my view, this is one way of covering the truth. Because if you have nothing to hide, why would you ask an agency not to share documents regarding an investigation conducted by another agency."

Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop questioned Lopez’s claim of ignorance, particularly given the detailed content of her letter to the COA.

“And yet you’re telling us you do not know anything about its utilization but you can answer the AOMs (audit observation memorandums) of CoA? I cannot believe you do not know anything about its disbursement or liquidation,” Acop stressed.

The auditing body flagged a significant portion of the secret funds, disallowing P73.287 million of the P125 million that the OVP spent in just 11 days during the last quarter of 2022, Duterte’s first year in office.

COA auditor Gloria Camora previously confirmed that Duterte’s office submitted 787 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) with no names but only signatures, 302 ARs with unreadable names, and five ARs bearing the same name.

Lawmakers suspect the ARs were merely fabricated attempts to justify the use of the overall P612.5 million in confidential funds allocated to Duterte’s offices in 2022 and 2023.