Perhaps Bongbong felt he could not begin the administration by telling her no. That’s the one.
BOXES containing Commission on Audit documents related to the alleged misuse of confidential funds are transported after the adjournment of the 11th day of the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte on Monday in Pasay City.
PHOTOGRAPH by Aram Lascano for Daily Tribune
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Food. What the hell. Confidential funds. For food.
Government loves feeding programs. It can’t wait to show you. They drag out the cameras. The tarpaulin. The mayor’s face is bigger than the rice sack. One envelope changes hands, suddenly there are 12 photographers.
The food? Shhhh. No pictures or clear beneficiaries, no proud announcements. Very strange.
You hide the food only when the food is not the point. That is what happens when P125 million disappears in 11 days and suddenly Mary Grace Piattos and Milky Secuya have to explain where it went.
Food assistance is now legitimate OVP work. If the OVP genuinely needs more money, why ask for secret funds instead of more ordinary appropriations?
And she did get the latter. The OVP budget has exploded to more than triple the previous year’s. P2.3-B.
Sara: Confidential funds were needed to keep OVP work safe. The food needed protection?
There were no confidential funds in the original OVP 2022 budget. Then Sara took office and, suddenly, Malacañang found P125 million in the contingent fund.
Contingent means conditional. Unexpected. Maybe an emergency. So what was the emergency? Malacañang said new satellite offices were needed.
Emergency OVP regional offices? What happened after 30 June that could not wait for the 2023 GAA?
Maybe the emergency was simple: Sara wanted money her budget did not have and “intelligence” was simply a legal route to more flexible cash.
So which was it, Bongbong?
Why did you say yes? You’re the President. Nobody tells you what to do. You knew why Sara wanted it. Either there was a secret job no one has explained, or it was just secret money no one wants explained.
Because it was a terrible idea. Bongbong could have quashed it. He would have done so if it were Leni: “I’m sorry. You’re the backup president, not the backup NBI.”
But if it were an overwhelmingly brilliant idea, where was Bongbong to defend it? What did success look like? One arrest reported by the OVP. A terror plot. One rescued victim. Anything. Where?
That is the hole Bitrics and Chel should drive a truck through.
Perhaps Bongbong felt he could not begin the administration by telling her no. That’s the one.
And if confidential funds were Bongbong’s public declaration that he trusted her, what did he later learn that destroyed the trust?
Sara said Bongbong broke their agreement. What agreement? Other than obviously wanting the DND?
The Duterte camp had been suspiciously friendly with Beijing. No proof they were on China’s payroll, zero, but Defense would have been a spectacularly stupid place to test the theory.
Maybe Bongbong: “I cannot put a China-friendly rival inside the room where we plan how to deal with China!”
Very obvious. Sara meant placing a second foreign policy inside Bongbong’s own government.
So, maybe, DepEd was the safe cage. She didn’t get Defense. “But here’s DepEd. With confidential funds.”
Maybe that was the compromise. Not enough power to become a second President but enough money to save the marriage. Sara had already helped Marcos win. Was the confidential fund payment for political delivery?
Was the UniTeam really one government?
Maybe that was the agreement.
