House panel terminates probe into Sara Duterte's P612-M confi fund use

The House committee on good government and public accountability on Wednesday terminated its investigation into the budget use of the office of Vice President Sara Duterte and the Department of Education, particularly the P612.5 million worth of confidential funds.

This happened after the committee unanimously adopted the motion put forward by Abang Lingkod party-list Rep. Stephen Paduano.

While the committee report is yet to be released, committee chaiperson Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua said it will be disclosed “maybe by next week.”

Prior to the termination of the inquiry, at least three members of the panel said in December that the Vice President and certain officials of the OVP and the DepEd may face prosecution for plunder, technical malversation of public funds and falsification of public documents and perjury

Reps. Gerville Luistro of Batangas, Raul Bongalon of Ako-Bicol party-list, and Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur said this was because of the OVP and DepEd’s submission of acknowledgment receipts riddled with wrong dates, signatories with no birth records, and unnamed and non-readable names of signatories to liquidate the disbursed confidential fund to the Commission of Audit (COA).

Likewise, Luistro also said that the Vice President and other OVP and DepEd officials could also be held liable for bribery and corruption of public officers, citing testimonies of witnesses alleging that Duterte showered DepEd officials with money which were accepted by the latter.

Chua, however, could not say if all these recommendations will end up in the committee report. 

"The decision will still have to be made by the committee," he said. —AOL, GMA Integrated News