Former Department of Education (DepEd) Undersecretary Michael Poa confirmed Wednesday that the agency did not give any confidential funds to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for the conduct of Youth Leadership Summits (YLS) in 2023, despite later submitting military certifications to the Commission on Audit (CoA) to support its liquidation of confidential expenses.

“I’m sure you agree that the Department of Education didn’t contribute even a single peso [of confidential funds] to the AFP for the conduct of these Youth Leadership Summits, right?” prosecutor Benjamin Tolosa Jr. asked.

“Yes, sir. I confirmed that,” Poa replied.

His testimony corroborated that of Col. Manaros Boransing II and Col. Magtangol Panopio, who testified Tuesday that they were unaware the certifications they issued for the YLS would be used to justify P15.54 million in DepEd confidential fund expenses.

Three Army certifications later submitted by DepEd to CoA were dated 5 and 30 December 2023, and 1 January 2024. Poa said he received the CoA audit observation memorandum (AOM) on 2 February 2024.

“So they existed already at the time that you received the AOM?” Tolosa asked.

“It appears so,” Poa replied.

Poa, however, said he could not determine when DepEd received the certifications or whether Undersecretary Nolasco Mempin had obtained them before the AOM arrived.

The AOM questioned the liquidation of P75 million out of the P112.5 million in confidential funds used by DepEd, then headed by Vice President Sara Duterte. The funds were allocated between December 2022 and mid-2023.

CoA said the spending lacked documentary evidence demonstrating the success of information-gathering or surveillance activities, as required under Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2015-01 governing confidential and intelligence funds.

Poa, who drafted DepEd’s 17 April 2024 response to the audit findings, said he initially asked Mempin for accomplishment reports to support the spending.

‘Repurposed’ certificates

Tolosa questioned whether the Army certifications, which officers said were issued to document DepEd’s participation in the YLS, were later “repurposed” to justify confidential fund spending.

“Weren’t these certificates issued in December and when you needed proof to justify your use of the confidential funds as demanded by the Commission on Audit you repurposed these certificates?” Tolosa asked.

Poa did not directly answer, saying the documents might have been requested earlier by whoever was administering the program.

“They might have been requested before but they were not submitted to the Central Office,” he said.

When impeachment court presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero asked whether he had seen the certifications when he received the AOM, Poa said none had been shown to him.

“In fact, that’s why I never asked for certifications, I asked for accomplishments,” he said.

Poa said Mempin eventually provided the Army certifications, which he relied on in preparing the response to CoA.

Boransing and Panopio had testified that their certifications documented their units’ activities and did not certify DepEd’s use of confidential funds. They also said no intelligence-gathering activities were conducted during the summits.

The YLS is a multi-stakeholder program led by the AFP, with DepEd as a partner. It seeks to prevent the recruitment of young people into violent extremist groups.

In its April 2024 response to CoA, however, DepEd said the Army’s youth summit activities “directly resulted from the information provided by informers.”

Sen. Joel Villanueva asked Poa about the basis for the statement.

Poa said he relied on language in the Army certifications referring to a “synergistic exchange of intelligence and information” used to identify locations for the summits. He said he also asked other DepEd undersecretaries for similar documentation, but the Army certifications were the only documents he received.

The separate accomplishment reports he had originally requested never materialized. Mempin told him that certifications were how accomplishment reports were documented for such activities, Poa said.

Villanueva then asked whether Mempin had personally confirmed that the Army activities were based on information supplied by DepEd’s paid informants.

“Nothing like that was confirmed to me,” Poa said.

Poa added that he did not know what Mempin had discussed with military officials and would not speculate.

Who requested the certificates?

Senator-judge Erwin Tulfo pressed Poa on whether Duterte had ordered the use of AFP certifications.

Poa said Duterte never asked him to obtain or approve the certifications.

He said Mempin obtained the documents from Boransing, Panopio and retired Col. Adonis Bahaw, all former colleagues or classmates of Mempin at the Philippine Military Academy.

Poa also recalled the military officers telling him they did not know the certifications would be used to justify DepEd’s confidential fund spending.

Poa confirmed that none of the certifications identified the informants who supposedly received rewards or specified the information purchased with the confidential funds.

The P15.54 million represented rewards paid to informants in the first and second quarters of 2023, released in two tranches totaling P7.51 million and P8.03 million.

Poa, who was declared a hostile witness and is a member of Duterte’s defense team, maintained that he had no personal knowledge of how the confidential funds were used on the ground.

“Not all the information you bought will obviously lead to success,” he said.