Probe VP Sara's P625-million confidential fund use, Ombudsman urged

Opposition coalition Tindig Pilipinas on Monday urged Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla to investigate Vice President Sara Duterte’s use of P625 million in confidential funds from the Office of the Vice President from 2022 to 2023.

The call was formally made by the group, led by its convenor by personally submitting a letter before Remulla’s office.

“Your appointment to the Office of the Ombudsman comes at the heels of the darkest era of that venerable institution. With cautious optimism, we hope that your good Office will move towards once again being a true protector of the people as mandated by the 1987 Constitution,” the group said.

“This mandate [of yours] includes the power to investigate any serious misconduct in the office allegedly committed by officials removable by impeachment. It is in this capacity that we, convenors of Tindig Pilipinas and citizen-complainants in the impeachment of Vice President Sara Zimmerman Duterte respectfully urge you to urgently investigate the grave allegations that form the basis of the impeachment complaint against the Vice President,” the group added.

The Vice President was impeached by the House in February mainly due to allegations of misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds and threatening to kill President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr., among other reasons.

A House good government and public accountability panel probe earlier revealed that the OVP  liquidated its confidential fund allocation in 2022 to 2023 with acknowledgement receipts containing wrong dates, signatories with no birth records, unnamed signatures, and non-readable signatories, among others.

The same inquiry also revealed that the DepEd under then Secretary and Vice President Duterte used certifications from military officials, without the soldiers’ knowledge, to justify the disbursement of P15 million of its confidential funds for payment of informants in 2023.

“Your Office must make a firm stand against this display of impunity by a person who already has a track record of abuse of power. We cannot forget how Vice President Sara Duterte has already previously assaulted a court sheriff who was enforcing a court order, but she was able to get away from any form of accountability,” the group pointed out.

“Months have passed, yet the memory of these controversies remains vivid. We cannot allow a culture of impunity to take root, where actions that threaten our democratic stability and public accountability are simply forgotten, or worse, seen as a new, acceptable standard for our leaders. We trust that you will remain true to your oath and we look forward to seeing the Office of the Ombudsman act once more in the service of the nation,” the group added.

The Supreme Court, however, has ruled in July that the impeachment case against the Vice President violated the one year bar-rule and the due process by including at least seven new requirements for an impeachment complaint to be considered above board, conditions that were not present when the House impeached the Vice President.

These new requirements include:

• the Articles of Impeachment or Resolution must include evidence when shared with the House members, especially those who are considering its endorsement.
• the evidence should be sufficient to prove the charges in the Articles of Impeachment.
• the Articles of Impeachment and the supporting evidence should be available to all members of the House of Representatives, not only to those who are being considered to endorse.
• the respondent in the impeachment complaint should have been given a chance to be heard on the Articles of Impeachment and the supporting evidence to prove the charges prior to its transmittal to the Senate, despite the number of endorsements from House members.
• the House of Representatives must be given reasonable time to reach their independent decision of whether or not they will endorse an impeachment complaint. However, the Supreme Court has the power to review whether this period is sufficient. The petitioner who invokes the Supreme Court's power to review should prove that officials failed to perform their duties properly.
• the basis of any charge must be for impeachable acts or omissions committed in relation to their office and during the current term of the impeachable officer. For the President and Vice President, these acts must be sufficiently grave amounting to the crimes described in Article XI Section 2, or the Trail of Public Trust given by the majority of the electorate. For the other impeachable officers, the acts must be sufficiently grave that they undermine and outweigh the respect for their constitutional independence and autonomy and
• the House of Representatives is required to provide a copy of the Articles of Impeachment and its accompanying evidence to the respondent to give him/her an opportunity to respond within a reasonable period to be determined by the House rule and to make the Articles of Impeachment, with its accompanying evidence and the comment of the respondent, available to all the members of the House of Representatives.

Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives — BM, GMA Integrated News