The House of Representatives adopted on Tuesday a committee report recommending the filing of charges of plunder, technical malversation, bribery, and corruption against Vice President Sara Duterte and her subordinates in connection with the alleged misuse of her P612.5 million in confidential funds.
The recommendation, which includes falsification, perjury, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution, stemmed from the findings of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that rigorously probed the utilization of secret funds allocated to Duterte’s office and the Department of Education in 2022 to 2023. Duterte headed the DepEd for nearly two years.
Committee chairperson Joel Chua proposed before the plenary that the charges also be filed against key officials of the OVP and DepEd under Duterte’s tenure, namely, OVP Assistant Secretary Sunshine Fajarda and her husband, DepEd Special Disbursing Officer Edward Fajarda, and OVP SDO Gina Acosta, among others.
The committee report pertains to the alleged questionable utilization of the confidential funds allocated to the OVP (P500 million) and the DepEd (P112.5 million), a huge chunk of which was flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA).
"The OVP spent P125 million in 11 days, averaging P11.36 million per day in 2022 alone, covering the period from 21 to 31 December 2022, and was issued COA disallowance notice,” Chua said. “This is the only and first vice president to request an excessive amount of confidential funds, in comparison with past vice presidents.”
State auditors disallowed P73.287 million of the P125 million due to the lack of "documents evidencing the success of information gathering and/or surveillance activities" for which the funds were intended.
As for DepEd, P112.5 million in confidential funds reportedly remain unaccounted for, despite being withdrawn as cash advances by Fajarda during the first three quarters of 2023. The funds in question were withdrawn via three separate checks, with each amounting to P37.5 million.
Similar to Fajarda, Acosta also withdrew P125 million in confidential funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines in four batches. Both Fajarda and Acosta turned over the confidential funds to two military officers, whom Chua said, “neither accountable officers nor have any fidelity bonding.”
He maintained "confidential funds were used for expenses other than confidential expenses and was unjustifiably exorbitant, excessive, extravagant and/or unconscionable."
Sunshine, Duterte’s alleged trusted aide, meanwhile, was pointed to as the alleged distributor of monthly “cash envelopes” given by Duterte to her subordinates in the DepEd on top of their salary.
At the height of the hearing last year, former DepEd undersecretary Gloria Jumamil Mercado presented before the committee hearings at least nine envelopes — with each containing P50,000 — that Duterte had allegedly given to her from February 2023 to September of the same year.
She claimed that the motive behind the envelope could be to influence her as Head of Procuring Entity. She told the panel that she was forced to resign due to her purported refusal to heed the order of the higher-ups to bypass the procurement process. Duterte denied the allegations of bribery.
The marathon probe into Duterte’s confidential funds, which were allegedly supported by fictitious acknowledgment receipts (ARs), was instrumental in the filing of impeachment complaint against the VP.
The so-called bogus names include “Mary Grace Piattos,” “Jay Kamote,” “Miggy Mango,” “Mico Harina,” “Ralph Josh Bacon,” and “Erwin Q. Ewan,” which lawmakers suggested mimic those of celebrities and grocery items.
“The submission of spurious and questionable acknowledgement receipts were established. Dubious or fabricated with fictitious repeated names, similar handwriting, and predated and antedated acknowledgement receipt. We received a certification from the PSA claiming that no such name exists, the name that were mentioned in their acknowledgement receipt,” Chua said.