OVP disputes COA at impeachment trial, says it did not use P125-M confidential fund in 11 days

The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte refused to admit on Monday that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) used the P125 million worth of its confidential funds within 11 days in December 2022.

This developed after defense lawyer Michael Poa refused to stipulate or agree with the stipulation put forward by the prosecution counsel, Lorna Kapunan, that the OVP received the P125 million worth of confidential funds it received December 20, 2022 and disbursed it within 11 days based on state-run Commission on Audit (COA) records.

“No stipulation,” Poa said during Day 11 of the impeachment trial of Vice President Duterte.

One of the impeachable allegations leveled against the Vice President is the misuse of P612.5 million worth of confidential funds allocated to OVP and the Department of Education during her tenure as Education chief.

Poa, however, agreed with Kapunan that the OVP was allotted P125 million confidential funds in 2022 with counter stipulation that such amount was approved by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.

Kapunan agreed that the fund was released to the OVP with the President’s approval.

In a separate press conference, private counsel for the prosecution Atty. Benjamin Tolosa, Jr. pointed out that the 11-day disbursement timeline is based on the OVP’s submissions to the state auditors and not a prosecution theory.

“It will be up to the Impeachment Court how they’ll take this refusal to enter the stipulation even if this matter is already clear from the documents submitted by the OVP [to the COA] itself,” Tolosa said.

“At the end of the day, even if they’ll not enter into that stipulation, we’re confident that we have the evidence that will be able to establish that fact,” he added.

Also on Monday, prosecution witness and former COA-Intelligence and Confidential Funds Audit Office State Auditor Roderick Wamil also testified that the 11-day disbursement timeline for the OVP’s P125 million worth of confidential funds was based on the documents submitted by the OVP to state auditors, and that liquidation reports of the OVP were not compliant with the joint circular governing the use of confidential funds.

Wamil said that instead of submitting sales vouchers or official receipts, the OVP merely submitted acknowledgment receipts in justifying its disbursement of confidential funds.

The OVP’s usage of P125 million worth of confidential funds first surfaced in September 2023 during the budget deliberations on COA’s proposed P13 billion budget for 2024.

Then House Committee on Appropriations senior vice chairperson and Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo, standing as budget sponsor of COA’s proposed P13-billion budget for 2024, made the 11 days disclosure when asked by House Assistant Minority Leader and Gabriela party-list Representative Arlene Brosas if the Makabayan bloc's computation that the OVP spent the fund in 19 days despite non-provision in the 2022 national budget as passed into law was accurate.

“Hindi po ito nagastos within 19 days kundi 11 days po (It wasn’t spent within 19 days but within 11 days). The liquidation report by OVP was submitted by the OVP [to COA] in January 2023," Quimbo then said.

COA has since issued a Notice of Disallowance on P73 million out of the P125 million confidential funds that the OVP disbursed for being in violation of the 2015 Joint Circular which limits the use of confidential fund to specific purposes.

The Senate impeachment court is conducting a trial hearing on Monday on Article I of the Articles of Impeachment which accuses Duterte of misusing P612.5 million in confidential funds. —KG/AOL, GMA News