Senator-judges grilled hostile witness Lemuel Ortonio over his supposed lack of diligence as chair of the bids and awards committee of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) for allowing P122 million in confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) to be released to informants, who allegedly purchased medicines and other supplies themselves.

Ortonio is not only the Assistant Chief of Staff of the OVP. He is also in charge of the department that oversees the agency’s budget.

Senator-judge Kiko Pangilinan questioned Ortonio about why he allowed the CIF to be distributed in cash directly to informants, bypassing the proper bidding process legally mandated for government transactions.

“So for surveillance, P122 worth of medicines were given to informants, but they said they were the only ones who would buy the medicine. Is this usual? In terms of using government funds, and you being a BAC head?” he asked Ortonio. 

The OVP official, in response, agreed that it should have undergone the mandatory bidding process, but he also insisted that the disbursement of funds had followed the process permitted by law and was therefore not unusual.

The P122 million reportedly formed part of the P500 million in CIF received by the OVP from December 2022 to mid-2023. Duterte’s office reportedly spent P42 million in the first quarter of 2023 on medicines, followed by another P40 million in the second quarter of that year. 

The P500 million was divided into four tranches at P125 million each, with the OVP utilizing the first tranche from 21 to 31 December, a period of roughly 11 days.

Pangilinan observed that the OVP suddenly stopped incurring millions in CIF for medicines after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged such expenses in a report released in October 2023.

The audit findings cover the OVP's 2022 expenses. Of the P125 million in CIF, P73.3 million was disallowed by the COA due to a lack of relevant documents proving that the funds were used for the information-gathering or surveillance activities for which they were intended.

COA auditor Roderick Wamil previously told the impeachment court that the purchase of medicines using CIF is not allowed under Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) No. 2015-0, which governs CIF use.

Citing Col. Raymund Lachica, Ortonio said the informants explicitly requested medicines, but received cash instead. He admitted that he could not verify whether the cash was ultimately spent for medicines.

Senator-judge Win Gatchalian asked him whether the funds were distributed in the form of cash and not medical supplies, to which Ortinio replied, “That’s correct, Your Honor.”

He, however, noted that he can no longer recall whether it was Lachica personally who handed the cash to the informants. 

“What if the DEPs (documentary evidence of payment) are fake? What if his account of events to you isn’t true?” Gatchalian asked, challenging the OVP for appearing to have taken Lachica’s claims at face value.

Ortonio admitted that he did not personally verify how the money was distributed on the ground or the legitimacy of the thousands of acknowledgment receipts (ARs) because he was confident in the information provided by Lachica, who was designated by her boss, Duterte, to implement such activities as group commander of the Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group.

Ortonio claimed that he only learned of the concerns about the medicine purchase after the OVP received the AOM, about nine months after the funds were released.

The OVP official said he met with Lachica several times to clarify how the CIF was implemented on the ground, including its use for medicines, before drafting the OVP’s reply to COA’s AOM. 

The auditing body typically issues an AOM to state agencies to address financial or operational deficiencies found during an audit, such as accounting errors, weaknesses, or missing papers, and to request explanations or missing documents from the flagged department within a specified period. 

According to Ortonio, Lachica informed him that a portion of the CIF was released to informants and agents, with the understanding that it would be used to purchase medical and food supplies.

Senator Bam Aquino also questioned Ortonio over the lack of an internal probe into fictitious names tied to CIF, noting that even minor receipt irregularities normally trigger investigations in public offices.

Ortonio admitted there was no effort to initiate such an investigation at his level because, although the names raised suspicion for others, they were not questioned in the audit findings.

Ortonio was instrumental in processing the CIF. He accompanied OVP Special Disbursing Officer Gina Acosta—also a hostile witness—in encashing the CIF in four tranches from LandBank Shaw Branch and stored the same in gym bags. Acosta later handed over the bags to Lachica, though Ortinio said that he was not aware of such arrangement.

Acosta earlier told the impeachment court that no official receipts were submitted to her by Lachica aside from acknowledgment receipts, which mostly comprised “fictitious” names as alleged by the prosecution.