Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre on Sunday said the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte provides the proper venue for her to respond to the Commission on Audit (COA) findings on the alleged misuse of confidential funds under the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

While the COA has ordered Duterte and other OVP officials to return approximately P73 million in confidential funds, Acidre said the Vice President still has the opportunity to address the issues raised against her.

He said only Duterte could explain the reasons behind the use of the confidential funds and present evidence to support her decisions.

"There are questions that cannot be set aside. The question now is what the Vice President knows and what she did," Acidre said.

"Her officers could only attest to how it was used. However, it is only the Vice President who can say why it was used and for what purpose based on the operations that she approved," he added.

Acidre urged Duterte to present her explanations under oath before the Senate impeachment court, saying statements made during the proceedings would carry greater weight than interviews, press conferences, or social media posts.

"In an impeachment, the question is not only whether there was a crime. It is also a question of whether an individual deserves the public's trust," he said.

Burden of proof

House Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega also said Duterte has the burden of proving that the confidential funds were spent on legitimate national security operations.

Ortega acknowledged that the use of confidential funds is not inherently unlawful but stressed that such expenditures must be shown to have benefited the public and remain subject to standards of transparency and accountability.

He said the impeachment proceedings should determine, through evidence, whether the funds were used for legitimate intelligence activities.

"Were there actual informants? Were there actual operations? Were there actual intelligence outputs corresponding to the funds released?" Ortega asked.

"We are not saying that it has been proven that there were ghost operations. What we are hoping for is that these matters would be answered through evidence," he added.

Ortega also questioned the reported conversion of confidential funds into checks that were later encashed, saying there appeared to be no clear trail showing how the money was spent after it left the banks.

On July 29, officials from Land Bank of the Philippines branches near the OVP and the Department of Education testified before the Senate impeachment court that P625 million had been withdrawn over several months between 2022 and 2023. The prosecution's witnesses, however, said they were not aware whether the withdrawn funds were confidential in nature.

The Senate impeachment court is scheduled to resume trial on Monday, Aug. 3, with the House prosecution panel expected to present witnesses from the Commission on Audit for Article I of the impeachment complaint. The witnesses are expected to discuss the acknowledgment receipts and supporting documents submitted by Duterte's office that were flagged during the audit.