VP Sara answers alleged fund misuse before Ombudsman

Vice President Sara Duterte on Friday filed a counter-affidavit before the Office of the Ombudsman in response to allegations of fund misuse in her office and during her tenure as Secretary of the Department of Education.

The counter-affidavit responded to allegations of technical malversation of public funds, falsification of public documents, perjury, bribery, corruption of public officers, plunder, betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution against the Vice President and her subordinates. 

The same allegations were levelled against Duterte by the House committee on good government and public accountability which conducted a series of inquiries.

Based on the information provided to GMA News Online by the Vice President’s camp, the reply to the Ombudsman’s order was filed by lawyers Paul Lim and former Department of Education spokesperson Michael Poa at 1:10 pm on June 27, 2025.

The Ombudsman on June 19 directed Duterte to comment on the allegations. The House panel was named the complainant.

The House panel, however, said it did not file a complaint against the Vice President before the Ombudsman but merely recommended the filing of charges.

The panel had said that it found that the OVP and DepEd submitted acknowledgment receipts riddled with wrong dates, signatories with no birth records, unnamed signatories, and non-readable names of signatories before the Commission of Audit (COA) to justify the disbursement of around P612.5 million worth of confidential funds.

The Vice President has maintained that she never misused public funds.

But as a result of the panel's findings, the Vice President is now facing an impeachment trial before the Senate.

Earlier, House prosecution panel spokesperson and lawyer Antonio Audie Bucoy said that the Ombudsman should wait for the verdict of the Senate impeachment court on Duterte before deciding whether she should face criminal prosecution. 

"The impeachment proceedings are of primordial consideration," Bucoy said in a press conference.

"‘Yan ho ang pinakamataas na antas tungo sa [hakbang na] panagutin ang impeachable official. Under the Ombudsman Act, Republic Act 6770, meron hong dalawang provisions doon na sinasabi na ang Ombudsman ay hindi pwedeng imbestigahan ang impeachable official because sapagkat ang mekanismo na nakasaad sa saligang batas [ay] impeachment, na ang may jurisdiction ay ang Senado, sitting as an impeachment court,” he said, referring to Section 21 of the Ombudsman law.

(The impeachment is the highest-ranked accountability tool for an impeachable official. The Ombudsman Act has two provisions stating that the Ombudsman cannot investigate an impeachable official because the process for that is impeachment, which is under the jurisdiction of the Senate impeachment court.)

“Pangalawa, meron din diyan provision na nagsasabi kung iimbestigahan, maaaring imbestigahan ng Ombudsman ang impeachable official kapag ang layunin nito ay mag-file ng verified impeachment complaint. Yun lang ho,” Bucoy added, referring to Section 22 of the Ombudsman law.

(Secondly, the same law states that if the Ombudsman investigates an impeachable official, the goal must be to file a verified impeachment complaint. That's it.) 

The Office of the Ombudsman is headed by Samuel Martires, a former Supreme Court and Sandiganbayan Associate Justice.  His tenure will end in July this year. —LDF, GMA Integrated News