OVP disbursing officers could face malversation raps

The “highly irregular” delegation of millions in confidential funds by Vice President Sara Duterte’s special disbursing officers (SDOs) to military officers may result in the potential filing of criminal charges, including plunder, House lawmakers said Tuesday.

House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability panel chairperson Joel Chua stated that Gina Acosta and Edward Fajarda, SDOs of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd), respectively, are clearly liable for handing over confidential funds to military personnel, a practice non-compliant with Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2015-01 governing the release of such funds.

“They are the bonded officers. First and foremost, the money involved here is not theirs, it is the people's money. The fact that they entrusted this to someone, and if something happened to the money, they would be responsible,” said Chua, a lawyer.

During the panel’s hearing on Monday, Acosta and Fajarda disclosed that they turned over P125 million and P37.5 million in confidential funds to Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group Commander Col. Raymund Lachica and Col. Dennis Nolasco, DepEd’s designated security officer, respectively, on 20 December 2022 and during the first quarter of 2023.

Under the joint circular issued by the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit, SDOs — not security personnel — are mandated to disburse confidential funds.

Although Acosta and Fajarda claimed they were merely following Duterte’s directive to release the funds to Lachica and Nolasco, their ignorance of the circular could lead to charges of technical malversation — or even plunder, given that the funds in question surpassed the P50 million threshold for plunder.

“If this is public funds intended for public use, even if assuming that the funds allocated to the confidential funds were still used for public use, but because strict procedures were not followed, I believe this is technical malversation,” said 1-Rider Rep. Ramon Gutierrez, also a lawyer.

“If this was taken for personal gain and this was proven to be fictitious and erroneous for the ARs to justify the amount, that could be malversation proper or worse plunder because it is already over P50 million,” he added.

Ako Bicol Rep. Angelo Jil Bongalon, another lawyer, pointed out that the actions of Acosta and Fajarda constitute a “clear violation” of the joint circular.

“If we look at who is the accountable officer there, it refers to the special disbursement officer, in the person of Gina Acosta and Edward Fajarda. There is nothing in the JMC guidelines that you have to give to the security officer,” he emphasized.

“It's highly irregular in the sense that that's not really the accountable officer [who managed the secret funds]. So right there, it was clear that there was a violation and our SDOs themselves admitted that it was the order of our Vice President,” he added.

Acosta and Fajarda confirmed withdrawing the funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines and placing the money in duffel bags and a backpack.

Acosta said she encashed the funds in four tranches totaling P125 million. Nolasco disclosed that he disbursed the money on a weekly basis, ranging from P4 to P6 million.

The P125 million represented confidential funds allocated to the OVP for the last quarter of 2022, utilized within 11 days in December of that year. The OVP subsequently received an additional P125 million per quarter for the first three quarters of 2023.

Meanwhile, the P37.5 million was part of the P112.5 million in confidential funds allocated to DepEd during Duterte’s term.